June 14, 2010

 

UK pork demand on the rise

 

 

The British public's taste for pork is growing with consumption of the meat outselling both lamb and beef for the first time, according to new figures.

 

UK's British Pig Executive (BPEX) said that comparisons looking at figures for monthly, quarterly and annual consumption are all showing rises. On an annual basis, fresh and frozen pork is up 3.1% while shoulder roasting joints are up 40% and loin roasting joints are up 11.7%.

 

Bacon is also in positive territory with a year-on-year increase of 5.4% according to the latest figures.

 

Meanwhile, in May, BPEX has launched a Two Tonne Sow (2TS) project which puts a challenging new target for pig producers; to achieve an industry average of 2,000kg of pig meat per sow per year by 2012.

 

BPEX has also developed a sow productivity calculator for producers to work out where their output of pig meat per sow per year currently stands.

 

The figures will help them benchmark their business against the English industry average and other businesses and pinpoint which areas of performance to prioritise to achieve the 2,000kg annual target.