UK retailers urged to prioritise British pork as farmers resort to killing healthy piglets

In light of 'significant' supply chain issues, Rob Mutimer, chairman of the National Pig Association, has sent an open letter to UK retailers urging them to prioritise British pork through plants and divert butchery staff back to British pigs. Sent today (Friday October 1) the letter revealed an estimated 120,000 pigs, which should have gone to slaughter, were backed up on UK farms as a consequence of the ongoing labour shortage. The dire situation has led to one farmer in Yorkshire killing healthy piglets on-farm, with industry chiefs warning it was a last-resort measure no doubt being replicated elsewhere. NFU vice-president Tom Bradshaw told Farmers Guardian a welfare cull of pigs was 'probably the only way the Government is going to take notice of the industry's crisis'.Mr Mutimer said the sector had reached an impasse, despite spelling out the impacts and consequences to the Government, with 'repeated requests' for support in the form of 12-month Covid-19 recovery visas gone unheeded. "We are also aware that because of the current price differential, there is an increased amount of EU pork being imported into the UK for further processing, which has caused two issues," he wrote. "Highly processed products such as gammons needed for Christmas have diverted essential butchery staff resource away from that required for British pigs. "We have also seen other products that require no butchery being imported and prioritised over more labour-intensive British products, simply to keep the supermarket shelves full. "These two issues combined have resulted in a slowing down of the throughput of British pigs through plants, which is adding to the already severe backlog." He added some retailers, who to date have been supportive of British supply chains, were considering moving to cheaper EU pork which could result in more producers, in addition to those that were responsible for the 27,500 sows already lost, exiting the industry. Welfare "The percentage of contracted British pigs being accepted by processors has been reduced by up to 25 per per week since the beginning of August and has now reached the point where some farmers are facing a welfare cull of their pigs for rendering because they have simply run out of space and have no ability to shut off the pig supply coming through," he said. "The only option for some will be to cull pigs on farm, which is something that we have tried our utmost to avoid, not least for those that lived through the foot and mouth outbreaks who will not want to relive such a heart-breaking experience."Others would have to pay for their pigs to go to dedicated slaughterhouses for culling and rendering. Not only would this be an incredible waste of healthy pigs and good pork, it would be financially ruinous and incredibly damaging for your supply chains."I am therefore asking, on behalf of my members, for you to help us by prioritising British pork through the plants and diverting butchery staff back to British pigs so we can get the throughputs back to where they need to be and start reducing the backlog to a sustainable level."This is no longer a question of cost, and need not continue indefinitely, but comes from the desperate need to reduce the backlog of pigs that we have on our farms and avoid this precipice that we now find ourselves facing." He urged the UK retailers to respond by Friday October 8.