Global pork producer Pilgrim’s UK is launching a Butchery and Abattoir Academy, to help fill the sector skills gap by developing UK-based industry talent. 

The aim of the Academy is to recruit and support the training and skills development of UK-based workers, as well as opening up new opportunities for people to develop a career in the sector.

Applications for the Academy are now open to any UK-based aspiring butcher. Through the Academy apprentices will complete an 18-month Level 2 Butchery and Abattoir apprenticeship which combines a mixture of classroom learning and on-site working, in partnership with Pilgrim UK’s training provider Bishop Burton College. Apprentices who complete Level 2 will also have the opportunity to complete a Level 3 apprenticeship, which will allow individuals to progress into supervisory roles.

Pilgrim’s UK is also supporting the Skilled Worker pipeline by recruiting overseas labour, predominantly from the Philippines where interest in butchery and manufacturing roles has been particularly high. Pilgrim’s UK’s head of butchery has played an instrumental role in recruiting the new employees from the Philippines and helping them settle into life in the UK; the number of recruits doubled between April and August.

by Meghan Taylor / Pig World

Romania confirmed an outbreak of African swine fever on a large pig farm in the western county of Timis, on Wednesday October 13.  

It was also confirmed that 39,000 animals will be culled and that local authorities and the food safety agency were meeting up to agree on next steps, Reuters reported.

County prefect Mihai Ritivoiu confirmed the outbreak on Facebook, saying: “It is official, there is an outbreak in Timis. We must take measures to combat the spread of the disease. A priority is to protect two other farms, each with tens of thousands of pigs, located a few kilometres away.”

Romania has already reported hundreds of cases this year, including several large farms, as well as smallholdings and ‘backyard’ pigs.

By Meghan Taylor / Pig World

Weekly pig prices, slaughter data for Great Britain

The EU-spec GB SPP continued moving in the right direction in the week ended October 8, inching up by 0.18p to reach 200.55p/kg.

This is the second successive weekly increase, following the reverse in the week ended September 24 and means the SPP has risen by less than 0.6p over the past four weeks as the upward trajectory slows, and means the index is 44p on a year ago.

The APP was back up by nearly a penny, 0.9p, for the week ended October 1. At 203.57p/kg, the gap between it and the SPP was just 3.2p.

The context is, of course, that average prices remain below average costs, estimated by AHDB at 221p/kg for August.

The EU price is critical to the UK market and the large gulf between the UK and EU prices over the summer has contributed to increased volumes of pork imports. As EU prices have risen that gap has closed in recent weeks.

For the week ending October 2, the EU Reference stood at just short of 187p/kg, compared with a UK reference price of 200.7p/kg, the gap of under 14p comparing with more than 30p at some points in August. However, the rise in EU prices has stalled, with some key producers recording falls in recent weeks.

Pig World / AHDB

AHDB Pork’s weekly pig prices, slaughter data for Great Britain

The EU-spec GB SPP increased by 0.36p to reach 200.37p/kg for the week ended October 1, following the previous week’s 0.21 backward step, the first since February.

The previous week’s reverse was from a relatively small sample due to the bank holiday held for the Queen’s funeral. Pig producers will be hoping the return to an upward trend is a sign of things to come, with average costs – estimated by AHDB at 221p/kg for August – still above average prices, and many businesses continuing to lose money on a weekly basis.

Recent market reports have been of ‘flat demand’ for British pork products, as trade data shows a substantial increase in pork imports during the first seven months of this year.

There was a big weekly drop in estimated clean pig slaughterings, reflecting the extra bank holiday last week, as the Queen’s funeral was held.

The APP was down by nearly a penny for the week ended September 24. At 202.68p/kg, the gap between it and the SPP was just 2.67p.

The gap between the EU and domestic prices is key in terms of the UK pig market outlook. In the week ended September 25, the EU reference price was 185.46, following steady increases since mid-August on the back of tighter EU supplies. This narrowed the gap to the UK price to just over 14p, compared with more than 30, not many weeks ago.

AHDB / Pig World

Average pig production losses have topped £50 per head for the second successive quarter, as soaring costs continue to cripple an industry that has now lost more than £600 million since the autumn of 2020, according to AHDB estimates.

The latest AHDB quarterly cost of production and margin estimations for Q2 show producers lost, on average, £52/pig (58p/kg) in Q2, following losses of £58/pig in Q1 and £39/pig in Q4 2021, meaning producers have now endured seven successive quarters of negative margins.

While the average pig price rose rapidly, from 146p/kg in Q1 to 183p/kg in Q2, so did average costs, as the impact of the Ukraine war on cereal prices hit home. COP averaged 240p/kg over the quarter, up 33p on Q1, 58p on Q2 2021 and 85p on Q2 2020.

This was primarily driven by a further 27p hike in feed costs to 174p/kg, with labour, energy, fuel, interest rates and falling cull sow prices accounting for some of the other cost increases, with decreasing carcase weights also a factor.

The estimates use the latest performance figures for breeding and finishing herds for the 12 months ending June 30, 2022.

“With pig producers experiencing continued negative margins since October 2020, it is estimated (based on the total pig slaughter numbers) that the industry has lost over £600m since October 2020 to the end of June 2022,” AHDB analysts Carol Davis said.

Numerous producers have already been forced to quit, and many more have reduced their sow herds, as reflected in the June Defra Agricultural Survey, which shows a 17% year-on-year decline in the breeding herd. This is expected to result in a large shortage over the late-autumn and winter.

By Alistair Driver / Pig world

The pig sector has urged UK retailers to follow Waitrose after it made a fresh pledge to pay farmers a fair price during the backlog crisis.

Waitrose said it would be extending its commitment to pay a ‘fair and sustainable’ minimum price for pork to all of its pig producers.

The pledge has been made as prices continue to plummet, alongside record costs of production and an on-farm backlog of approximately 200,000 pigs.

The sector has faced a range of challenges, including the loss of exports to the Chinese market for certain pig processors, global disruption to CO2 supplies, and crippling labour shortages.

Waitrose’s move extends its previous commitment announced in November 2021, which it agreed to review on a regular basis.

Announcing the price pledge, the retailer warned the pig sector was facing ‘the biggest crisis in a generation’, with ‘falling prices impacting financial sustainability’.

by FarmingUK

Farmers demonstrated outside a meeting in York on Thursday as industry representatives met with the Environment Department (Defra) about the problems facing the pig production sector.

The National Pig Association (NPA) said the backlog of pigs ready for processing, which are having to be held on farms because of a shortage of butchers, is now estimated at more than 200,000 animals.

The industry body said it knew of 35,000 healthy pigs which have been culled on farms as a result of the backlog, although this is likely to be an underestimate, and 40 independent producers have recently left the sector.

Producers are being hit by shortages in EU workers, caused by Brexit and the pandemic, to process their pigs and by high costs of feed for animals that are having to be kept on farms for longer before being sent to abattoirs.

As the NPA and National Farmers’ Union (NFU) held an emergency summit with Defra, attended by representatives from major retailers and pork processors, farmers warned the meeting was vital to the industry.

By Emily Beament / Evening Standard

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

The Eight Fifty Food Group, which owns pork processor Karro, has announced the acquisition of Irish food business Carroll’s Cuisine from Carlyle Cardinal Ireland (CCI) for an undisclosed fee.

Carroll’s is a leading producer of cooked meats and convenience food in the Republic of Ireland, employing approximately 300 people at its site in Tullamore, Offaly. It will be integrated into Eight Fifty’s pork division, further expanding its presence in the Republic of Ireland following the acquisition of M&M Walshe in June 2020.

Carroll’s sliced cooked meat offering will complement M&M Walshe’s gammon, bacon and sous-vide meat products.

Upon completion of the transaction, which is subject to standard closing conditions and approval from the Irish Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, Eight Fifty will have sales of around £1.9 billion and employ around 8,300 people across 23 manufacturing sites in the UK, Republic of Ireland, Germany and France.

Di Walker, CEO of Eight Fifty Food Group,said: “Eight Fifty are guardians of strong brands across multiple proteins and so we are delighted to add the Carroll’s business to our growing group. Like our Young’s brand in seafood, the Carroll’s name is synonymous with quality, value-added protein products. Carroll’s will be a great addition to our business”.

BY ALISTAIR DRIVER