Pig producers reckon their competitiveness is improving both against others in the UK and in the EU and they also believe it will get even better over the next 12 months.
However, retailers recorded a down turn in year-on-year confidence for the first time in four years.
As far as output was concerned, finishing accommodation was seen as the most important limiting factor over the next year.
These are just some of the findings from the latest BPEX confidence survey carried out not only among producers, but also processors, vets, allied industry and retail / foodservice.
The survey also contains a section on BPEX services and the results show slightly fewer people were using them, though the website continues to be the most popular with Knowledge Transfer also being highly ranked.
BPEX head of knowledge tansfer and communications Andrew Knowles said: “The survey provides a very important barometer of the confidence and concerns of each part of the pig meat supply chain as well as shining a light on the quality and relevance of the BPEX business and its services to our customers.
“The impact of volatility of feed prices and weak market prices at the time of the survey in 2013 are not unexpected for producers but the dip in confidence by post farm gate parts of the supply chain is a new trend.
“BPEX is also looking hard at how it can provide even greater value and relevance to its customers through the services it provides, whether this is Knowledge Transfer, how it communicates more effectively with its customers or highlighting the work of the marketing team to promote and drive demand for pork and pig meat products with customers and consumers.”
The survey is available to download from the BPEX website by following this link.
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
