On-farm pig culling now firm prospect

As the week closed there was no escaping the magnitude of the crisis facing the food supply chain – with the revelation that log-jams in the pig sector see producers facing the very real prospect of having to slaughter and dispose of animals outside the food chain.

Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers president, Alan McNaughton

The National Pig Association (NPA) yesterday warned that this was a likely scenario with an estimated 120,000 pigs backed up on farms which should have gone to slaughter. The organisation said that, despite strong lobbying, there was no sign of any meaningful moves from the Government – so it was calling for support from UK supermarkets.

In a letter to retailers it said that a focus on highly processed products such as gammon for Christmas had seen staff diverted from normal processing, and at the same time products requiring less labour-intensive processes were being imported, further stifling throughput at British plants.

It said that while all steps had been taken to avoid it, the prospect of on-farm culling or paying to have pigs taken to abattoirs to be slaughtered for rendering was now firmly on the cards: “Not only would this be an incredible waste of healthy pigs and good pork, it would be financially ruinous and incredibly damaging for supply chains.”

Meanwhile, the Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers warned that staff shortages were likely to be a long term issue: “The notion that the degree of staffing issues affecting the whole food industry at present will magically disappear once we accomplish Christmas, is fanciful,” said SAMW President Alan McNaughton, speaking after a meeting of the association’s executive council.