With pig prices at an eight year low, NFU Scotland is working with other organisations across the supply chain to get more Specially Selected Pork on supermarket shelves to combat the current trend.
The price has been dropping steadily from a record high in November 2013. At present for every pig being sold a farmer is losing £10.
The decline in price has been caused by a number of factors, including oversupply in Europe due to the Russian import ban.
Many British retailers have committed to stocking 100% fresh pork, and with the new processing plant in Brechin now in operation, it is hoped this decline will be halted.
The focus is now on marketing Specially Selected Pork, and NFU Scotland will be meeting with stakeholders in due course to discuss this further. Quality Meat Scotland recently launched a marketing campaign, similar to its successful Scotch Beef and Scotch Lamb campaigns, which will complement this work.
The Union will also be meeting with retailers to discuss the positioning and publicity of Specially Selected Pork as well as focusing its efforts on a ‘shelfwatch’ initiative to monitor this.
NFU Scotland’s Pigs Committee chairman, Kevin Gilbert, commented: “Pig prices have been declining for some time and are currently at their lowest level in around eight years. Looking simply at the past year prices are down 20-25p/kg dwt which represents a decrease of about 18%. Production simply cannot be sustainable at these prices.”
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.
