UK urged to raise pressure over pig prices

NFU Scotland yesterday called on the UK government to provide a timetable for the creation of an adjudicator into supermarket trade, a move which had the support of the cabinet secretary for rural affairs, Richard Lochhead.

The timetable request was part of a package of measures the union put forward to ease the financial pressure on the pig sector caused by imports of cheaper, lower welfare pigmeat from continental Europe on top of the high cost of grain as the main feed for pigs.

Union vice-president John Picken warned that unless there was more support from the supermarkets then there was little chance of pig producers having "any chance of survival."

Later, Lochhead confirmed that he had written to the Westminster government last week, "making it crystal clear that the grocery adjudicator must be established as a matter of urgency".

Pig producers in this country were already facing financial pressures through increased feed prices last autumn but the situation took a downward dive following an animal feed scare in Germany causing the EU pigmeat market to collapse.

Since then some UK retailers have continued to take advantage of falling continental prices to stock their shelves with imported pork.