The government must roll out essential reforms across the pork supply chain to avert the collapse of the industry and protect the UK’s food security, industry leaders have warned.
Key asks include the introduction of legislation to underpin new pig contracts, which would allow producers, marketing groups and processors to negotiate terms that work for all parties, including ensuring a fair price for producers.
This is included in the National Pig Association's (NPA) submission to Defra’s consultation on Contractual Practice in the UK Pig Sector, which sets out a blueprint for a fairer, more transparent and, ultimately, more sustainable pork supply chain.
The NPA is also calling for better forecasting to improve business planning, as part of a wider drive to increase transparency across the chain, and for pork buyers to make better use of the entire pig carcase, rather than just selective cuts.
The body's submission to the consultation, which closed on 7 October, comes against the backdrop of a catastrophic 18 months for the industry that has seen producers rack up losses, collectively, of more than £600 million.
Many have been forced out of business, with official government figures highlighting an 18% decline in the pig breeding herd over the year to June 2022.
With average pig prices still well below average production costs, many more producers currently stand on the brink, the NPA warned.
Allied with other factors such as Brexit-related labour shortages and soaring feed and energy costs, driven by the war in Ukraine, the situation has left the pig sector damaged to the extent that its capacity to produce pork in this country is now under threat.
The group's chairman Rob Mutimer, a Norfolk pig producer, said: “We believe this process offers real hope for the British pig sector, which has taken an absolute battering over the past 18 months.
“It has become fairly obvious to all involved that the supply chain, as it stands, is broken. Contracts, where they exist, have proved to be not worth the paper they are written on for many, and those producers have been left powerless as their pigs have been rolled week after week."
He added: “We believe the measures that we and others who have responded are calling for will, if implemented, form the basis of a stronger, more coherent supply chain where all parts have the opportunity to thrive.
“But the government must act decisively and quickly before it is too late for the pig sector – and in order to fulfil its stated aims of reinforcing the UK’s food security.”
