Defra Secretary George Eustice has told a committee of MPs that the Government is ‘limited’ in what it can do to support pig producers during their time of crisis.

Instead, Mr Eustice put the onus very much on pork processors to do more to increase their throughput and reduce the backlog on farms, at one point appearing to suggest this should include paying farmers less to speed up the process of getting pigs through plants.

However, while he offered little prospect of any short-term Government help for the industry, Mr Eustice reiterated that Defra is looking to introduce new legislation in the future to ensure a more functional and fairer pig supply chain.

Mr Eustice was questioned on the pig crisis by Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee chairman Neil Parish and other MPs at the end of a long and wide-ranging session on Tuesday covering his and Defra’s work.

‘Sheer waste of food’

Mr Parish quoted a Yorkshire pig farmer, who had told him pigs are being culled on her farm ‘as we speak’, as the impact of pigs being held on farm for longer due to processing delays takes its toll. “There are animal welfare issues of this and it’s a sheer waste of food,” Mr Parish said, before asking the Defra Secretary what more could be done to get pigs ‘properly processed and the animal welfare issues solved’.

Mr Eustice acknowledged that the situation was ‘quite difficult’, but went on to explain how the industry’s ‘asks’ that the Government had delivered in its October support package had not been utilised by processors.

The ‘bespoke’ temporary visa scheme for pigs that was delivered despite being a departure from Government policy ‘hasn’t been used as much as we’d hoped’, he said. “There was a provision for about 800, but I think it will be in the low hundreds for the numbers that they actually bring in under that scheme.

“Some of the processors have used the skilled route to bring some butchers in from some areas, but they’ve not they’ve not been recruiting in the way we thought they might, given the labour shortage was one of the key issues they kept highlighting.

Alistair Driver / Pig World

Meat specialist Cranswick is talking to the government about special waivers to get more butchers and slaughterhouse workers into Britain to deal with the problem.

CEO Adam Couch estimated that between 300 and 400 workers are needed to ease pressure in the industry. The “backlog” of pigs is put in the thousands, though Couch said it was tough to put precise numbers on it.

The meat industry has had a tough few years due to the loss of skilled labourers post-Brexit and the temporary shutdown of many processing plants due to Covid outbreaks.

Evening Standard

Defra Secretary George Eustice has claimed lamb exports to the EU will return to pre-Brexit levels in future.

British sheepmeat exports to the bloc have fallen by 25 per cent since the UK left the EU, with industry leaders blaming the sharp drop on non-tariff barriers such as paperwork and checks.

Last year, the British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) warned UK meat exporters were having to spend an extra £1,000 to send a lorry through a port.

Smaller exporters, in particular, have struggled to handle the 29 different processes required to send meat to the continent.

Giving evidence to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee this week (February 1), Mr Eustice said he expected the trade to bounce back over the coming years.

“Things like salmon have actually seen an increase in their exports since we have left the European Union, driven by high demand for premium product,” he told the MPs.

“I think we will see a similar situation on our other major agricultural exports like lamb. There will be some impact because of the additional export processes which are required and the costs associated with that, but the big exports we rely on will resume just as Scottish salmon already has.”

But National Sheep Association (NSA) chief executive Phil Stocker questioned whether this would be the case.

“[Trade] will never return to the way it used to be, and seeing the effect border control posts and export health certificate controls are having on exporters, I do not see our volumes to the EU returning to where they were,” he said.

By Abi Kay  / Farmers Guardian

Reduced throughputs at UK abattoirs will have a knock-on impact on future trading patterns, industry chiefs have warned. 

It comes as tight supplies of cattle and sheep have supported the continuing trend of above-average market prices into the first month of 2022.

But last year saw cattle throughputs reach their lowest level since 2015 at 2.7 million head, a 5.7 per cent drop on 2020 and 4.3 per cent below the five year average, according to Defra figures.

Glesni Phillips, data analyst at Hybu Cig Cymru – Meat Promotion Wales (HCC), said the decrease in cattle throughput at UK abattoirs last year was not unexpected.

“Increased numbers were processed during 2020 and this led to fewer cattle on the ground,” she said.

“This was especially true for adult cattle which saw throughput fall by almost 6 per cent on the year.”

Hannah Binns / Farmers Guardian

China, Japan, Taiwan, and Kuwait have all announced bans on pig meat imported from Italy after several cases of African Swine Fever (ASF) were reported in wild boar in the Piemonte region in Northern Italy.

The countries have reportedly blocked purchases of pork from Italy, whilst Switzerland has also introduced trade restrictions with Italy.

The news was announced on Wednesday by Confagricoltura, the confederation of Italian agriculture. Confagricoltura president Massimiliano Giansanti called for the “quick and effective” implementation of “surveillance and biosecurity measures for the protection of farms” as part of efforts to “limit the damage as much as possible.”

Italy has also announced a ban on hunting and several other outdoor activities in two northern regions affected by the outbreak.

by Iain Hoey / Pig World

Farmers in East Yorkshire are warning they could be forced out of business if the government doesn’t do more to boost staff numbers in the supply chain.

It comes as a lack of abattoir workers meant 10,000 pigs were culled in the region in the run-up to Christmas.

Without abattoirs to process the pigs, farms simply run out of space to keep them, resulting in the culls.

East Riding of Yorkshire Council was told those staff shortages were fuelled by Brexit, with many workers returning to their home countries.

Sisters Kate Moore and Vicky Scott, who run a pig farm in Driffield, have called the action “criminal.”

Kate said: “It’s a disgrace that 35,000 across Great Britain have been killed on farm and wasted. It’s a complete waste. It’s criminal what has happened.”

The sisters would normally sell around 90,000 pigs a year. They are contracted to a certain number of pigs to go to slaughter every week. But currently those contracts are not being taken due to the staff shortages. They are down 30%, losing between £25 to £30 per pig.

“We’re the ones who are suffering financially and emotionally. The farmers are taking the hit in every way”, said Vicky.

“We are suffering massively through no fault of our own and the government have to be held responsible for that.”

by Amelia Beckett / ITV

The EU imposition of veterinary inspection fees, for example, has been widely touted as having a damaging effect on the sector.

John Mettrick, who owns a small abattoir in Derbyshire and holds key positions in the Abattoir Sector Group and National Craft Butchers, told Farmers Guardian the Government was reluctant to diverge from EU law as Ministers fear this could be used as ‘an excuse’ for the bloc to ban UK exports.

He said: “We have been under the cosh from these EU regulations which saw abattoirs close, and we were told when we came out of the EU, we would be in control and we would be able to get rid of some of the regulations which have not been advantageous to small plants.

“We were told it would be great, but actually, it is worse. We are almost more beholden to EU regulation now we are out than when we were in.”

The UK has also been accused of ‘goldplating’ EU rules, by insisting any slaughterhouse which exceeds 1,000 livestock units in a year has full veterinary inspection, as opposed to delayed post-mortem inspection.

“Why would you go for full veterinary supervision when these businesses have been operating with part veterinary supervision, especially when we are short of vets?”

by Abi Kay / Farmers Guardian

Defra Secretary George Eustice has been accused of ‘missing the point’ on slaughterhouse investment, after he suggested no local abattoir network policy was needed to accommodate Government plans for shorter livestock journeys.

Last week, the Government launched an eight-week consultation on improving animal welfare in transport, which included proposals to cut maximum journey times and ban live exports.

But on Tuesday (November 8), Mr Eustice refused to offer much-needed support for smaller abattoirs in order to meet these aims.

Speaking to MPs on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, he suggested supermarkets which stipulate animals must be sent to a particular slaughterhouse would need to change their supply chain policies in order to ‘accommodate the law’, but added: “We have looked at where all the slaughterhouses are, species by species, and then considered hypothetically how quickly farms in many different parts of the country could get animals to the slaughterhouse.

by Abi Kay