August 10, 2007

 

Italian hog farmers declare business crisis over soaring feed costs

 

 

Swine farmers in Italy have asked the government to declare a business emergency on Thursday (August 9) due to skyrocketing feed prices.

 

Feed prices have jumped 35 percent in the last 45 days in Italy, costing big losses for swine farmers, according to Confederazione Italiana Agricoltori (CIA) said.

 

Silvano Menozzi, chairman of the Italian union of pig farming associations, said the sector -- which is worth about 2.1 billion euros (US$2.89 billion) a year, or 15 percent of total Italian livestock sector output -- have not been earning for the last three years due to continuous rise of feed costs.

 

Grain traders said feed prices were set to remain high following a rally in cereals prices on international markets.

 

Farmers said they had to sell pigs at a loss of 30 to 60 euros per swine as food and retail industries would not raise prices due also to low meat consumption in recent years.

 

Pork consumption in Italy -- despite a popularity of famous Parma ham -- dropped almost six percent in the first four months of this year and the downward trend remained, according to farmers research institute ISMEA.

 

To level up production with demand, farmers should cut the number of swine by a couple of million from the current 12 million, said Giorgio Apostoli, farming analyst at Italy's biggest farmers association Coldiretti.

 

Giandomenico Gusmaroli, chairman of Italy's major swine farmers body ANAS, said the existing rigid system of annual contracts between farmers and industry should be revised to make prices more flexible to reflect changing market conditions.

 

Farmers said a lot of pig farms were up for sale but there were few buyers.

 

Menozzi said the recent situation is considered "suicidal".

 

Outbreaks of vesicular disease -- which are not dangerous for humans -- in northern Italy also dealt a serious setback to the pig sector.

 

More than 100,000 pigs have been culled in Italy's major swine farming region of Lombardy since the first outbreaks in September-October last year, ANAS's Gusmaroli said.