March 2, 2006

 

UK's pig industries warns that it could be phased out by supermarkets

 

Scotland and British pig farmers are berating supermarkets for allowing cheap imports to squeeze local producers out of the market and warned that the British pig industry could go under if current trends persist.

 

Recent pressure is squeezing the life out of the Scottish pig industry, Scotland's Pig Union president John Kinnaird said.

 

Even though Scottish shoppers have been willing to pay more for home-produced pork, returns are now barely meeting the cost of production.

 

Last year, pork imports to the UK hit 422,000 tonnes, compared with only 240,000 tonnes six years ago. Since then, the number of local pig farms has almost halved to about 5,500.

 

The drastic falls has left Scotland with only one major pig processing centre for its 150 pig farms.

 

Despite pledging their support to the Scottish pig industry, supermarkets have not done so in actual fact, said Robin Traquair, chairman of the NFUS pigs committee. Supermarkets favour cheap imports rather than reward pig farmers who have produced according to the highest standards, he said.

 

In defense, David Reid chairman of Tesco, a major food producer, argued that it is not the supermarkets but the general market that determines prices, adding that the group will continue to support home producers, provided the quality and supply was there.

 

On another front, the National Pig Association is voicing concerns over the damage caused to the British pig industry by misleading supermarket labels.

 

Although 94 percent of unprocessed meat such as fresh pork gave country of origin information, only 19 percent of processed meat products included country of origin details.

 

The NPA claim that this has led to foreign pork being misleadingly labelled as a British product.

 

Under EU rules, the country of origin is where the processing takes place.  This allows ham with British labels to be made from imported pork.

 

The NPA claim this misleads shoppers into believing they are supporting a British product.

 

British ham and bacon now only accounts for between 30 percent to 40 percent of the pork products sold in supermarkets.