Government announces review to tackle massive pig backlog on farms

The UK government has promised to look into pig contracts in response to a worsening crisis in the sector, stated reports on Thursday (10) as an estimated 200,000 pigs are backed up on farms and cannot be taken to slaughter.

In a crisis summit held on Thursday (10), farming minister Victoria Prentis had agreed to a request by the National Pig Association (NPA) and National Farmers’ Union (NFU) to tackle the issue of pig backlogs on farms – and to figure out ways to bring in more butchers.

“The effects on pig farmers have been devastating, and it is clear that many contractual arrangements are simply unfair,” Prentis said.

She said ministers wanted to engage with the pig industry on how fairness and transparency could be improved, and a consultation is expected later in the year.

Producers have said the British pig industry is fighting for survival. They had called on the government to hold a summit because they said the previously announced support measures had delivered “minimal benefit”.

Zoe Davies, the chief executive of the NPA, said the meeting had been a positive start to discussions about how to solve the crisis in the pig industry.

“We didn’t get any big commitments today, but I don’t think we expected any,” she said. “The government is committed to finding a solution and we will make sure they are successful, otherwise there won’t be a pig industry.”

Davies said producers wanted processors and retailers to work together to tackle the backlog of pigs on farms, while retailers could also do more to promote British pork.

Measures introduced in the autumn to support pig producers – including permitting foreign butchers to enter the UK on temporary visas, longer working hours at processing plants and a scheme allowing producers to store pig carcasses for several months before processing – have also recently been extended until the end of March.

Ministers had last October unveiled plans to allow 800 foreign butchers into the UK to tackle the meat crisis, offering six-month emergency visas to avert a mass pig cull caused by a shortage of labour and market disruption. 

But NPA has reportedly declared that ‘quite simply not enough’ butchers were brought in by the scheme, adding that just over 100 people actually came after the seasonal worker visas were made available.

British pig farmers say a combination of Brexit and COVID-19 has led to an exodus of migrant workers from abattoirs and meat processors. This leaves pigs to over-fatten on units across the UK.

Once over a certain weight, abattoirs charge penalties for handling the animals leaving many farms unable to afford their services.