Supermarkets snub calls to support British pork
Calls to support Britain’s pig sector have been snubbed as retailers displayed less British pork in March, latest data from AHDB’s PorkWatch survey has revealed.
Seventy-nine per cent of fresh pork on display was British, a 2 per cent decrease from the January survey, with Asda and Tesco’s falling from 55 per cent and 58 per cent in January to 47 per cent and 52 per cent respectively.
Yet Aldi, Budgens, Co-op, Lidl, M&S, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose continued to stock 100 per cent British fresh pork.
The proportion of British bacon and ham on display across the 11 retailers also rose slightly by 1 per cent and 3 per cent respectively.
It comes against a ’perfect storm of events that hit the British pig sector’, which saw a large differential between unusually low EU pork prices and domestic pork prices until recently, which may have influenced retail buying decisions.
At the National Pig Association’s (NPA) request, Defra convened a roundtable event with producers, processors and retailers to search for solutions.
NPA chief executive, Dr Zoe Davies, said: “Retailers at the roundtable event were supportive and said that demand for British pork was currently strong, so if processors could provide the product, they would sell it.”
By Hannah Binns / Farmers Guardian
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