Pig industry wants government to stay out of levy decisions
The English pig industry has sent a message to the government, asking that officials keep out of decisions about how the pig levy is spent.
Producers want more of their 85p-per-pig levy to be spent on marketing, in order to encourage younger consumers to understand and embrace modern ways of cooking and serving pork.
Pulled Pork
In a poll on the National Pig Association (NPA) website, over 90 per cent of members who took part agreed the sector’s recent Pulled Pork campaign was a good pig levy investment.
And over 90 per cent said Defra should not dictate whether future AHDB Pork marketing campaigns get the go-ahead or not.
NPA chairman Richard Lister, a Yorkshire pig, sheep and arable farmer, said: “As diets change in our sophisticated marketplace, intelligent and informative marketing to explain the benefits of red meat is absolutely essential if British producers are to grow or even just maintain the domestic customer base.
“If AHDB cannot achieve this on behalf of levy-payers because of government interference, then it is hard to see what its role will be going forwards.”
Currently £3.8m of the pig levy is spent on AHDB Pork marketing activity, about 40 per cent of the sector board’s total annual spend.
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