Pilgrim’s UK Ashton-under-Lyne pork processing site will process pigs for the last time today, as the sector called the firm’s decision ‘disappointing’.

Pilgrim’s Ashton site will kill pigs for the last time on Friday (7 July), with existing operations transferring to the company’s abattoir and butchery facilities in Spalding and Westerleigh.

Pilgrim’s UK announced proposals to close the 70-year-old abattoir and butchery facility in Greater Manchester in May, leaving more than 500 members of staff potentially facing redundancy.

“Pilgrim’s UK has been working closely with the site team and customers to ensure we maintain quality and service levels throughout this process,” the company said.

Pilgrim’s UK, one of the UK’s largest food businesses, had shut down its Bury St Edmunds and Coalville sites last year.

The UK pork sector continues to face the most significant challenges in its history, with the UK sow herd having contracted by around 15%.

 

 

by Farming UK

THE news that Black Brow abattoir near Wigton is closing has shocked producers and butchers.

 

 

By Maureen Hodges | News & Star

Deadweight lamb prices increased for four consecutive weeks during November and early December.

GB prices rose to average 561.1p/kg deadweight in the week ending 3 December, up by almost 50p/kg on month-earlier levels.

Despite this growth, prices are 57.5p/kg below the same week last year.

Jonny Williams, operations director at livestock marketing group Farmstock, said there is a lot of New Zealand lamb coming in, both to the UK and into Europe, which is making it challenging and taking the edge off the trade.

“UK lamb is competitive, but not currently as price competitive in Europe as New Zealand lamb,” said Mr Williams.

“Lightweight lambs are very tricky as they are generally exported to southern Europe and that trade does seem very difficult. Standard weight lambs are selling OK, but maybe not as high as people had hoped,” he added.

Charlie Reeve / Farmers Weekly

Accusations that the Food Standards Agency (FSA) is dragging its feet on support for small abattoirs gathered pace this week, after it rejected proposals for a dual system of meat controls for export and domestic consumption.

Introducing separate regulatory regimes would exempt smaller processors from some of the more onerous regulations required for those which export, but in a new update, the regulator outlined its concerns about the impact of these changes on trade.

The agency claimed that because animal by-products which are sold domestically may end up as ingredients in products which are exported further down the supply chain, the introduction of a dual system would require agreement from international partners and uptake could be limited.

It also suggested the meat industry in Northern Ireland would be put at a competitive disadvantage because the Brexit protocol requires producers to apply EU controls, and warned complications around compliance and traceability within the UK market could arise if there were different regimes in England, Scotland and Wales.

Plans for a dual system were discussed at a meeting attended by Farming Minister Mark Spencer, the FSA, parliamentarians and industry bodies last week.

Christopher Price, chief executive of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, said: “It would be useful if the FSA could give some indication of what they can do to help the sector, rather than constantly coming up with reasons for doing nothing.

“For the first time in a long time, in Mark Spencer, we have a Minister who seems to understand the crisis in the sector and who wants to do something about it. AHDB already says we are losing 10 small abattoirs a year.

“But that means having to take difficult decisions, recognising it will not always be possible to please every organisation and every vested interest.”

 

Abi Kay / Farmers Guardian

China is expected to increase its pork imports in the coming months, as its pig herd is hit by the knock-on effect of industry losses suffered last year.

The reduction in pig output in China appears to be larger than official data suggests, industry experts claim. Surging pork prices have driven up inflation in the world’s second-largest economy, which produces about half of the world’s pork, at a time of slowing growth, according to a report by Reuters.

Chinese pork prices rose in October by more than 50% from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said. Pork prices are predicted stay high in 2023 because of the lower supply, according to 10 industry analysts, farmers, and feed and genetics suppliers, although they cautioned demand may be impacted by China’s COVID measures.

Falling pork demand and high feed costs from June 2021 until July this year caused farmers to incur losses of as much as 600 yuan per hog, according to the report. Farmers sold off herds, culled more sows than normal or slowed production by not mating females to curb their losses.

The government has blamed farmers holding pigs back from slaughter to fatten them up more for the higher prices, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has repeatedly said breeding capacity is sufficient.

 

Alistair Driver  / Pig World

One of the UK’s biggest pork producers has spent £4 million hiring butchers from the Philippines, after a staffing crisis threatened to hamper production. 

Cranswick Plc, which supplies supermarkets with pork and poultry, is paying for 400 butchers to travel from the Asian islands to work in Britain after staff from continental Europe flocked home following Brexit.

“It’s absolutely necessary if we want food on the plates,” said Cranswick’s CEO, Adam Couch. “Obviously it’s very expensive to bring them over, but it’s far better to bring them over than to curtail production as we did this time last year.

Couch said that paying for each butcher from the Philippines cost between £10,000 and £12,000 — equivalent to more than £4 million. Each butcher needs a visa, a flight to the UK, an English test and accommodation. Cranswick has an apprenticeship program to train up new butchers, but Couch said that there was just “not enough people”.

Before Brexit, around 65 per cent of Cranswick’s workers were from central Europe. Last year, Cranswick had 25 per cent fewer staff than required at its plants in Hull and Norfolk.

Jayne Arnold from the Food and Drink Federation said the whole industry is suffering from a lack of staff “despite employers making significant efforts to attract workers from offering higher wages to introducing more flexible shifts.”

 

 

Sabah Meddings / TimesLive.co.za

 

The Competition Markets Authority (CMA) has launched an investigation following the acquisition of veterinary and livestock services company Vorenta Group by official veterinarian specialists Eville & Jones.

The CMA issued an Initial Enforcement Order earlier this month stating that it is questioning the move on the grounds that Eville & Jones (E&J) and Vorenta ‘have ceased to be distinct’.

It goes on to say that it is considering whether a ‘merger situation has been created’ that would ultimately ‘result in a substantial lessening of competition in any market or markets in the United Kingdom (UK).’

The acquisition was completed in September and included Vorenta’s Meat and Livestock Commercial Services (MLCSL) and HallMark Veterinary and Compliance Services. It was believed the combined group would have annual revenues in excess of £50 million.

At the time E&J, which specialises in the provision of official veterinarians and meat hygiene inspectors relating to Export Health Certifications said the companies were ‘natural partners’ with Vorenta which offers carcass classification services, supplies vets to government departments, as well as delivering various export health certification services.

Vorenta had been established as the holding group for HallMark and MLCSL – the latter being bought from AHDB in 2018.

 

By Jane Thynne / Farmers Guardian

Former Defra Secretary George Eustice has launched a blistering attack on former Prime Minister and International  Trade Secretary Liz Truss over her handling of the Australian trade deal.

The deal included giving Australia or New Zealand full access to the UK market to the beef and sheep market, albeit phased in over 15 years. Yet Australia still bans the import of British beef and there was virtually nothing in return for UK farmers. The Government estimated the Australia-UK Free Trade Agreement, signed on 17 December 2021, would unlock £10.4bn of additional trade while ending tariffs on all UK exports to Australia.

While pork was not a part of the deal, with Australia not being significant exporters, the fear within the pig industry was that could set a dangerous precedent in future trade deals.

Mr Eustice, who was sacked by Mrs Truss when she became Prime Minister, told a Commons debate that it was a bad deal for the UK, especially its farmers, and stressed that lessons need to be learned as the UK negotiates future deals.

“Unless we recognise the failures that the Department for International Trade made during the Australia negotiations, we won’t be able to learn the lessons of future negotiations,” he said.

“The first step is to recognise that the Australia trade deal is not actually a very good deal for the UK.”

 

by Alistair Driver / Pig World

Just confirmed today, the requirement for veterinary visits attestations  for export certs pushed back another year to 13/12/23

Certification of ‘regular vet visits’ for EU exports or NI movements

Date issued: 16 November 2022

Purpose
To inform Official Veterinarians (OVs) and other veterinary certifiers that for export of Products of Animal Origin (POAO) to the EU, the EU requirement for farms of origin to have a regular veterinary visit can be certified as follows:
i. Until 13 December 2023, this EU requirement can continue to be certified based on a farmer declaration.

ii. After 13 December 2023, farmer declarations will no longer be accepted and this EU requirement must be certified based on other evidence such as membership of a recognised farm assurance scheme or via a valid veterinary declaration.
The relevant official Notes for Guidance will be updated in due course to reflect this 12-month extension to the previous temporary policy.

Background
1. The EU Animal Health Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/429) created a new
requirement for farms producing animals or products of animal origin or germinal
products for export to the EU (or movements to Northern Ireland under the conditions
of the Northern Ireland Protocol) to be subject to ‘regular’ veterinary visits.

This is implemented by Article 8(e) Delegated Regulation 2020/692.
“must receive regular animal health visits from a veterinarian for the purpose of the
detection of, and information on, signs indicative of the occurrence of diseases,
including those listed diseases referred to in Annex I relevant for the particular species
and category of animal, germinal product or product of animal origin and emerging diseases.

Such animal health visits shall take place at frequencies that are
proportionate to the risks posed by the establishment concerned.”

2. Official Veterinarians (OVs) have had to certify compliance with this new requirement
since 15 January 2022.

3. Farmers only need to comply with this requirement if they are providing relevant animals
or products for export to the EU or for movements to Northern Ireland.

4. The regular veterinary visit requirement can be certified if the farm of origin is a
member of a recognised assurance including Red Tractor, Welsh Beef and Lamb
Producers and/or Quality Meat Scotland. A list of qualifying farm assurance schemes
has been published and will be reviewed on a regular basis.

5. The regular veterinary visit requirement can also be certified on the basis of a valid
veterinary declaration. A template Establishment Veterinary Visitation Declaration for
this purpose can be found on APHA Vet Gateway (ET242).

6. Until 13 December 2023, for farms that are not part of a recognised farm assurance
scheme and are not able to provide a valid veterinary declaration, a farmer declaration
can instead continue to be used to support certification of the EU ‘regular veterinary visit’
requirement. This can be provided via the Food Chain Information (FCI) document.

7. Farmers must use the available time to choose either to exclude their animals or products
from EU export, join a recognised farm assurance scheme or obtain an appropriate
veterinary declaration.

8. Defra will work closely with Official Veterinarians, the Royal College of Veterinary
Surgeons, farmers, markets and exporters to facilitate, where required, provision of
veterinary declarations to certifying OVs. We will issue further guidance in due course.

Action
Official Veterinarians (OVs) and certifiers providing Support Health Attestations at abattoirs
should note the updated guidance on certification of the EU requirement for regular
veterinary visits.
For further information please contact [email protected].

 

Gov.uk