Don’t be surprised if, when visiting London, your eye catches a large pig advert at some underground stations. Don’t think something’s

wrong with your ears when you think you’ve just heard people sing Stand By Your Ham on the UK radio. You’ll know for sure the pigs are heavily in the spotlight when you’ve seen British cars with bumper stickers telling you that ‘British pigs are worth it’. It’s the British pig industry that is trying to catch your attention as it is definitely in need of a gigantic boost. Pig producers all over the world seem to be suffering, but in the UK, everything appears to be even worse.

 

Apart from skyrocketing feed prices, diseases like PMWS and PDNS, as well as two FMD outbreaks in the past eight years, have had a severe impact on productivity. In addition, the money paid to producers for pig meat has long been below the cost of production. The British industry has already been reduced in size, and the industry’s sustainability, some warn, is severely at stake. For all these reasons, an extensive pig marketing campaign was launched in September of 2007 by the British Pig Executive (BPEX).

 

 

A special campaign website claims that the pig industry in the UK loses £6 (€7.5) every second. In practice, it could even be more as in May prices up to £12 or even £18 was mentioned (€15 or €22.50). Hence, according to BPEX, in the first five months of this year, sow cullings were up 40% – from 77,000 in 2007 to 102,000 – indicating that many producers had become that desperate that they’d rather shut up shop.

 

As most British pig farmers produce for the domestic market of 60 million people, BPEX targeted the campaign at everyone in Britain – from the members of the public to all segments of the industry. “Our traditional marketing approach was to inspire people to eat more pork, by, for example suggesting recipes,” BPEX chief executive Mick Sloyan said. “However, this time we wanted the campaign to have more impact and to reach more people with a deeper message. We wanted to launch a debate on the impact of the crisis on producers and farmers. That is why we decided to make as much noise as possible. We wanted to reach retailers, producers, politicians and food services alike.”

 

The British Pig and Poultry Fair, in Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire, was a good opportunity for BPEX to re-emphasise the need for higher pork prices once more. Sloyan explained the critical situation the country’s pig producers are in by reiterating that prices paid for pig meat have not kept up with pork retail prices. “The basket price for pork, bacon and ham from the big four retailers (Tesco, Sainsbury, Morrisons, Asda, ed.) we monitor each week shows an increase of nearly £1 a kg (€1.26) at a time when the price paid to producers has risen by just 10 p (€0.13). It makes you wonder where all the money has gone?”

 

 

Braving the lion’s den, retailer Tesco sent its chief pig meat buyer Andrew Carter, to the Pig & Poultry Fair to join in a panel discussion on ‘consumer trends and the future of the industry’, talking about his company’s aims and objectives. He chose not to answer the question, posed by the BPEX CEO – nor was he able to give satisfying answers to producers who, applauded by many, enquired about Tesco’s vision on the market situation. Carter said that Tesco does value a long-term and sustainable pig industry, adding, however, that he could not influence the market. Still, Carter’s story echoed BPEX’s approach to get out of the crisis. Interestingly, he painted a picture of supermarket consumers, on one hand increasingly fighting with dilemmas where to spend their hard-earned money.

 

On the other hand, he said, trends in the market show a growing focus on welfare, for meat produced from free-range and organic animals. In that, he noted, there is a big challenge. Looking to his audience, he asked, “Are you really going to pay 40, 50 or even 60% more when products are intrinsically the same? Consumers are relatively ignorant, so they need more meaningful information to make better choices.”