LEADERS of the beleaguered British pig industry are
playing up the human cost in a bid to gain support at Government and European Union levels for a re-training and diversification
programme.
Having largely admitted defeat on economic arguments following sustained losses put at #100m nationally in the
second half of last year, they now warn of a further 3400 jobs at risk in addition to the hundreds already lost. Some producers are planning more drastic measures.
Speaking at a British Pig Association (BPA) news
conference in London yesterday to launch the industry's new initiative, Fresh Options, Nigel Rowe, vice-chairman of the National Farmers' Union pig committee, reported the recent suicide in his area of a 32-year-old pig farmer with four children.
This death was set against the background of yet another blow to the industry with the announcement of a standstill on the planned export from Europe to Russia of 100,000 tonnes of cull sow meat - equivalent to about half the meat from Britain's annual cull sow total.
''This is going to hit us very hard,'' said Rowe.
Pig producers are selling finished stock at around 75p per kilo against a breakeven of 94p, incurring losses of up to #50,000 a week for larger producers in the leading 3000 or 4000 units.
Industry analysts predict that the breakeven price will not be reached until June at the earliest, leading to the loss of about 30% of UK pig production and around 3400 jobs.
If this price is not achieved until September, 55% of
production could be lost with a major knock-on effect for upstream and downstream activities.
More than half of a sample survey of pig farmers said they were not confident that there would be a successful pig industry in Britain when the current cycle settled down. ''Faced with such heavy losses it is no wonder that our survey shows high levels of stress in the industry,'' said Tony Houghton, chief executive designate of the BPA.
''If the industry shrinks to, say, 65% of its current production level, there will have to be a major restructuring of the whole industry, including
processing,'' Rowe added.
The Fresh Options initiative is aimed at helping pig
farmers to find ways of
helping themselves in the financial crisis which, according to Rowe, is not being helped by banks removing control from local managers in favour of a regional set-up.
Backed by the farmers' unions, and with the aid of the farm business psychologists, Jordia, the aim is to develop special workshops to help
producers either secure their businesses or to seek alternative systems of cash generation.
The European Commission is also being lobbied to help in redundancy and re-training packages.
In Scotland, EU funding has already been secured to
provide business development workshops while south of the Border, Andersons, the farm consultancy group, has provided backing for workshops in the major pig producing areas.
n SCOTTISH Office Agriculture Minister Lord Sewel has called upon the consumer to support the pig sector, writes Dan Buglass.
Speaking at the launch of a new logo for Farm Assured Scottish Pork in Falkirk, the Minister said shoppers must respond to the advances in welfare made by the pig sector.
''What I have seen in the industry represents an entirely welfare friendly system. This is in response to consumer demand, and they truly have to back the industry now,'' he said. ''Scottish producers, along with the rest of the UK, are now conforming to the highest welfare standards
anywhere in Europe, if not in the world.''
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