BMPA defends pig processors after Eustice comments
Nick Allen of the British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) has responded to remarks by Defra Secretary George Eustice on the pork industry’s actions over pig backlogs.
Speaking at the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (EFRA) on Tuesday 1st February, DEFRA Secretary George Eustice said that the measures put in place by the government in response to the industry’s backlogs “[haven’t] been used as much as we hoped.”
On Radio 4’s Farming Today, the chief executive of BMPA said that the implication made by Eustice, with concern to the industry’s alleged lack of uptake of the Temporary Visa Scheme introduced in October 2021, was “a little unfair.”
Talking about the work of processors in recent times, Allen said: “We have actually processed more pigs this last year, in 2021, than we have in the last 15 years. I accept that we haven’t kept up – or been able to cope with – the extra pigs that are in the system; but we haven’t exactly failed here.
“Around Christmas and the New Year, we were asking butchers to come here for six months, for a job, and we had to do it through labour providers who had no experience in recruiting butchers. So, the implication that we hadn’t really used the visa system very well I found a little unfair.”
Price drop would have been ‘unrealistic’
Allen also responded to Eustice’s comments that he thought processors “could have dropped the price of pigs” in order to put unprocessed, unbutchered carcases on “the open market”.
He said: “Europe is awash with pig meat. So, if we actually did have to clear that backlog within the European market, we would have probably had to drop the price by 30-35%. But I’m not sure that farmers would have necessarily welcomed us doing that.”
Profits “not particularly high”
When asked why pig farmers were taking on the “the burden” of costs resulting from the backlogs, Allen replied that pig processors were also taking hits too. He said that the current profits made by the meat processing industry are “not particularly high” – “we’re talking in the low one percents” – and that it was important to remember the role of retailers in this crisis too.
He said: “It seems to be that processors have this magic way of making pigs disappear. Well, actually, you need a market for them.”
Covid-related disruption
At the committee hearing on Tuesday, Eustice said that Defra had hoped that processors “would run ‘Saturday slaughter days’ and culls in order to clear the backlogs.” When asked on Radio 4 why these measures had not been carried out, Allen said that Covid-19 was a significant factor in answering this question.
He said: “The beginning of the year was really tricky. Omicron swept through the country, and in the first two or three weeks of this year, a lot of plants were really struggling with the virus and losing labour. In fact, I [was dealing with] one plant who had lost 60% of its butchers in one week.
“[The impact of this] has moved through the system now and if you look at the slaughter figures for last week, you’ll see that they are at an encouraging level. They are now planning some Saturday kills.”
“Devaluing the product”
Allen was also asked about the industry’s use of the Private Storage Aid Scheme, introduced by the government in October last year. He explained that the lack of uptake by the industry in using the scheme was linked to “the capital tied up in the pigs”, the process of “devaluing the product” by freezing the meat and the limited options available to processors when the meat is defrosted.
He added: “The interesting thing now is that what the Private Storage Aid has brought into the equation is this lower price George Eustice talked about. In fact, when you look at these lower prices floating round, there are other markets around the world at that more competitive price that might be attractive; so what you will see is that some of the Saturday kills and some of the extra kills going on won’t actually be for the Private Storage Aid. They might well be for other export markets, because Private Storage Aid means you are still tying up a lot of money.”
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