NPA tells Eustice of ‘unprecedented challenges’ facing the sector in the form of Brexit border delays and COVID-19
NPA chairman Richard Lister has written to Defra Secretary George Eustice outlining the ‘unprecedented challenges’ the sector faces as a result of the UK’s exit from the EU ‘impacting on our ability to export goods to the continent and Northern Ireland’.
“This has coincided with the enormous pressures that the COVID-19 pandemic has already placed on pig producers and processors, including falling prices, reduced slaughter capacity and
livestock stuck on farms, to create a perfect storm for the industry,” Mr Lister wrote.
Mr Lister described the overall picture as ‘one of enormous disruption to our export supply chain’ and pointed out how this contrasts with the lack of checks on EU imports coming the other way.
“This imbalance, combined with other market pressures and COVID-19, is a serious threat to our industry,” he wrote wrote.
He pointed out that COVID-19 outbreaks in the meat processing industry have already resulted in an estimated 100,000 pigs being rolled on farms that should have already gone to slaughter, with deadweights are at an all time high of 92kg, almost 10kg more than they should be.
by Alistair Driver / Pig World
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