NPA urges retailers to support British pork producers
The National Pig Association (NPA) has written an open letter to retailers, asking them to continue to use the British supply chain rather than switching to EU pork.
Within the letter, NPA stated that it has “been doing everything [they] can” to raise the labour shortage issue to government and make clear its impacts and consequences. Despite this, the Association claimed that the situation “appears to have reached an impasse, and repeated requests for support in the form of 12-month COVID recovery visas have thus far gone unheeded.”
NPA went on to discuss the impact of the current price differential between UK and European pork, stating that there is an increased amount of EU pork being imported into the UK for further processing. According to NPA, this has caused two major issues:
- Highly processed products such as gammons needed for Christmas have diverted essential butchery staff resources away from that required for British pigs.
“We have also seen other products that require no butchery being imported and prioritised over more labour-intensive British products, simply to keep the supermarket shelves full. These two issues combined have resulted in a slowing down of the throughput of British pigs through plants, which is adding to the already severe backlog.”
- Some retailers, who have to date been very supportive of their British supply chains, are now considering moving over to EU pork because it is much cheaper.
NPA said that this would make the backlogs “so much worse” to the point that many more pig producers, in addition to those responsible for the 27,500 sows NPA are aware of, would have no choice but to exit the industry.
The letter went on to state that the percentage of contracted British pigs being accepted by processors has been reduced by up to 25% per week since the beginning of August and “has now reached the point where some farmers are facing a welfare cull of their pigs for rendering because they have simply run out of space and have no ability to shut off the pig supply coming through.”
“An incredible waste”
NPA warned that “the only option” for some producers will be to cull pigs on farm. The action is something that NPA has actively tried to avoid. The alternative action, according to the Association, is for producers to pay for pigs to go to dedicated slaughterhouses for culling and rendering. NPA said: “Not only would this be an incredible waste of healthy pigs and good pork, it would be financially ruinous and incredibly damaging for [UK] supply chains.
“This is no longer a question of cost, and need not continue indefinitely, but comes from the desperate need to reduce the backlog of pigs that we have on our farms and avoid this precipice that we now find ourselves facing.”
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