• Change your delivery address • National Pig Association • National Pig Association Trade Directory • Diary Dates
April 30
Olympic pork will be British-bred
John Millard, of JJ Genetics, and Jeremy Barber, of Hermitage Seaborough Pigs, have just returned from visiting Beijing as part of a BPEX-led mission to re-establish exports of pig breeding stock which were suspended following the outbreak of foot and mouth disease last year.
JJ Genetics and Hermitage Seaborough were the first British companies to export pig breeding stock to China when the markets reopened in 2006.
In their first year they exported four consignments of breeding pigs to the Beijing, Shanghai and Chongquing areas of China. From a standing start they achieved a 25pc market share of imported pig breeding stock.
Whilst in the Beijing area they visited the farms of Messrs Pan and Ma both of whom were exceptionally pleased with the performance of the breeding pigs they imported from Britain.
Both reported that the British pigs had improved growth rates by 16pc and reduced fat levels by 17pc, as well as improving overall shape and conformation compared with their existing breeding stock.
Mr Pan, who has circa 3,000 sows on several farms, has just signed a contract to supply all the pork for the athletes at the Olympics. This pork will be from the progeny of the pigs supplied by JJ Genetics and Hermitage Seaborough Pigs in 2006.
“There are not many British products that we have been making for over 100 years and which China still wants to buy from us. Pig Breeding stock is one and we should celebrate that,” said Marcus Bates, of the British Pig Association. “We hope that export certification will soon be in place to allow this valuable trade which dates back to the 1920s to resume."
Pictured above: Jeremy Barber and John Millard with Mr Pan, who produces pork for Olympians.
Danish pork plants to close
As signalled on this page some time ago, Danish Crown will close two of its pork plants in Denmark this summer, in response to lower volumes of slaughter pigs. If the dramatic shrinkage of the Danish herd continues it will probably have to make more cut-backs next year.
Carbon footprint of meat
Details of an initiative to identify the carbon footprint of meat products, will be announced at British Pig and Poultry Fair. "We are working throughout the supply chain to develop an innovative model that will help the industry measure the carbon efficiency of various production systems - and potentially enable us to build an environmentally sound product category to meet future consumer demands," said ABN director of business solutions Simon Heath.
British Pig and Poultry Fair
Pig Industry Service Award
(in association with NPA Producer Group)
Judging of the British Pig and Poultry Fair Pig Industry Service Award took place this afternoon at Uncle Henry's in North Lincolnshire.
On the judging panel were Richard Longthorp (chairman) Richard Lister (chairman of NPA Producer Group) and Peter Rollings (chairman of NPA Allied Industry Group).
There were 21 nominations for eight excellent candidates — some of whom would have be surprised to find their efforts have been noticed and appreciated by fellow pig industry people.
As in previous years, the judges' brief was to choose a winner who goes beyond the call of duty in supporting the pig industry. The winner will be announced on the first day of British Pig and Poultry Fair.
Previous winners of this award have been: John Rowbottom, Richard Longthorp, John Millard and Lynda Davies. This year's award is run in partnership with NPA Producer Group, and is kindly sponsored by producer Richard Longthorp.
Competition Commission report
The Competition Commission has published its final report on its investigation into the grocery market.
• The report
• News release about the report
The measures announced by the Commission include the creation of a new strengthened and extended Groceries Supply Code of Practice and a recommendation to establish an independent Ombudsman to oversee and enforce the Code. These are some of the areas that will be covered by the Code:
• An overarching fair dealing provision is included.
• Retailers are prohibited from making retrospective adjustments to terms of supply.
• Retailers are prohibited from entering into arrangements that result in suppliers being held liable for losses due to shrinkage.
• Retailers are required to enter into binding arbitration to resolve any dispute with a supplier.
• Retailers are required to provide notice of, and reasons for, de-listing suppliers or significantly reducing suppliers’ business.
• Retailers are required to establish an in-house compliance officer responsible for compliance with the Code.
• Retailers are required to keep written records of all agreements with suppliers on terms of supply.
How supermarkets buy
"According to these documents, supermarkets use a broad range of psychological and strategic manoeuvres to extract the best price from the manufacturers. Alleged tactics used by supermarkets over the years include everything from deliberately misunderstanding a conversation to pleading poverty to "physically disturbing" the supplier, the documents say." Supermarkets and suppliers: Inside the price war from the Business section of yesterday's Daily Telegraph.
Co-op and Porkwatch — an update
The Co-op and Tulip have responded to the Porkwatch item Co-op cuts commitment to British pork (below). The Co-op says there was a small quantity of pork in a few of its stores which did not carry the QSM, and it was this that was picked up by Porkwatch auditors. It says this was a one-off and should not be taken to reflect on its commitment to 100pc fresh British pork. Tulip too has stressed that both the Co-op and Tulip are commited to the 100pc policy. Porkwatch considers this to be a good outcome.
Co-op cuts commitment to British pork
Since Tulip bought Geo Adams, the Co-op's commitment to British pork has dropped significantly. For over a year, Porkwatch results showed the Co-op as selling 100pc fresh British pork. But the most recent Porkwatch survey shows this figure down to 88pc. Its British share of bacon has also dropped, to 36pc, and its British ham to a dismal 8pc. "These changes may be a result of the acquisition of Adams by Tulip," report the Porkwatch auditors. "One to watch closely."
Imports of United States pigmeat triple
Over 900 tonnes of chilled boneless cuts from the United States were imported into the United Kingdom in January and February, triple the amount imported in the same period last year, according to trade statistics. However, it is most likely these consignments were forwarded onto other member states for further processing, reports AHDB Meat Services (formerly MLC Economics). This year traders in the United Kingdom, Italy and France have made greater use of a quota that allows imports of boneless hams and loins into the European Union at preferential duty.
Parliament and pig producers
The story so far...
Parliament dealt a body blow to British pig industry competitiveness when, from 1999, it unilaterally outlawed stalls on welfare grounds.
Lord Hoyle asked chairman of committees Lord Brabazon of Tara why Dutch bacon is served in two of Parliament's cafes, instead of high-welfare British bacon.
Lord Branbazon replied: Because Dutch is cheaper.
Lord Hoyle has now asked Lord Lord Branbazon why, if Dutch is so much cheaper, only bacon is sourced from outside the United Kingdom.
Lord Branbazon (continuing to comprehensively miss the point): "British pork is more readily available than British bacon which leads to the prices being considerably more competitive, particularly when considering free range products. The supply of Dutch pork is rare in the United Kingdom as the majority of the hogs are specially bred for the production of bacon."
Cull sow trade remains strong
Despite a significant rise in sow cullings compared with a year ago, the price remains firm — thanks largely to the weakness of sterling against the euro. The March average price increased 12pc on the month to 84p a kilo. By the week ended 19 April the c-ull sow price had risen to 89p, nearly a third higher than a year ago.
April 29
Danish herd falls
Supplies of European pigmeat look like being significantly tighter than previously imagined. The Danish breeding herd is down circa ten percent April 2007 to April 2008, with most of the fall occurring in the past four months. More on these figures tomorrow.
DAPP and the retail price
BPEX has been watching the peformance of DAPP against pigmeat retail prices of the big four retailers.
Both DAPP and the Pigmeat Average Retail Price (PARP?) are being charted against an index of 100 in July. This mechanism, gives a graphic picture of how prices are responding as the pig supply tightens.
The most recent chart (above) shows a significant discrepancy between DAPP and retail prices during the foot and mouth export ban when processors failed to pass on price increases.
The gap has since narrowed but there is still an unexplained discrepancy: if producers were being paid the same proportion of the retail price that they received back in July, the two lines would be over-lapping.
Other data collected by BPEX tells us the average retail price has increased 68p a kilo since July, whereas DAPP has increased only 8p a kilo.
PorkWatch results for March 2008
The share of British pigmeat on retailers' shelves remains fairly static. Some three-quarters of fresh pork is home-produced with one quarter imported.
Small but steady increases in the British share of bacon and ham have started to become apparent. In both cases PorkWatch auditors recorded the highest number of British packs of bacon and ham for many phases.
There is still a long way to go before the majority of bacon and ham is home-produced, but the figures now stand at 38 percent for bacon and 37 percent for ham.
This is a function of retailers increasingly expanding their premium and standard-plus ranges, in which British raw material is usually part of the buying specification.
Fresh pork: total British facings (%)
Morrisons 94
Sainsbury 83
Asda 74
Tesco 70
Tesco has the lowest commitment to British fresh pork of the big four retailers. Thirty percent of its fresh pork is imported. Over the last two years it has probably sourced from more European Countries than any of its competitors.
However PorkWatch auditors find that Tesco scores higher than Asda in the "QSM facings" category, though still a poor third to Morrison and Sainsbury.
Tesco performs better on British bacon and gammon. It has the highest share of British bacon and gammon. An analysis of gammon joints over the last year shows its British mix is around 50 percent, compared to its competitors circa 30 percent.
Waitrose/M&S/Budgens These three retailers have traditionally been the strongest supporters of the British industry, all exclusively British for fresh pork. On bacon Waitrose and Budgens have only minimal imported shares, and M&S is well over 50pc British and growing. Budgens and Waitrose have very high British shares of ham at around 80pc, although M&S is around 50pc.
Morrisons Excellent figures on fresh pork, with a publicly advertised position to stock only British. Its in-store butchery model means that the Quality Standard Mark is applied by staff on-site rather than at central packing facilities, so around 20pc-25pc of British packs do not get the Mark applied, but compliance with head-office specifications on packaging are improving. 31pc of pre-packed bacon is British, with a higher percentage of deli-counter bacon being home-produced. 43pc of ham was recorded as British, Morrisons' highest figure for at least a year.
Asda Fresh pork British share is 74pc around the weighted average for the market as a whole. Encouragingly its commitment to British bacon has grown from a pitiful 19pc a year ago to over 30pc now, due to the launch of pre-packed Wiltshire Cure British Bacon. It is the worst of the Big Four on ham with only 14pc labelled as British.
Sainsbury's Showing a generally upward trend in all categories. In fresh pork it has 83pc British, in bacon 45pc, and notably in ham where its British share is 60pc — higher even than M&S. Overall its stated commitment to more British sourcing is starting to come through in Porkwatch figures.
Co-op British share of bacon dropped to 36pc and British ham to an absolutely dismal 8pc. Porkwatch will be watching closely.
Hard discounters — Aldi/Lidl/Netto Aldi and Lidl hardly register at all on Porkwatch, with no British pork or bacon and only minimal ham in Aldi. Netto, on the other hand, recorded 60pc British pork, although with no British bacon or ham. Collectively these three chains have around 6pc of the retail food market and continue to grow, mainly through new site acquisitions.
Somerfield Owned by private equity interests and, if market rumours are to be believed, about to be sold (possibly to the Co-op group). It has adopted a robust trading position which has seen it operate for the last year with only 29pc of fresh pork being British, 18pc of bacon and 16pc of ham. Acquisition of its retail estate by competitors with more commitment to the British pig industry can only be good news.
Tesco 30pc of its fresh pork is recorded as imported. Over the last couple of years it has probably sourced from more European Union countries than any of their competitors, and at the time of writing is featuring a deal on imported leg joints, including some Swedish. Whilst it has the lowest commitment to British fresh pork of the Big Four, it has the highest share of British bacon and gammon. An analysis of gammon joints over the last year shows its British mix is around 50pc compared to the other big chains' figure of around 30pc.
Waitrose/M&S/Budgens These three retailers have traditionally been the strongest supporters of the British industry, all exclusively British for fresh pork. On bacon Waitrose and Budgens have only minimal imported shares, and M&S are well over 50pc British and growing. Budgens and Waitrose have very high British shares of ham at around 80pc, although M&S are around 50pc.
April 28
Who do we nominate for a Darwin Award?
THE RESULTS
There were 119 votes in the Darwin Award poll on this page, with "Myself" and "Tulip" level-pegging most of the way.
The "winner" is Tulip, with 31 votes. A Darwin Award nomination will be prepared this week.
Examples of Darwin Award winners last year...
• When attempting to steal a large water tank, three thieves started by cutting away the legs from under the tank. It took some time to identify their flattened bodies.
• A throat ailment prevented a man from imbibing alcohol, so he elected to receive two bottles of sherry via enema. The alcohol in his rectal cavity continued to be absorbed even after he had passed out and the next morning he was dead.
Getting to Grips with IPPC
Workshop, Wednesday April 30, at The Bear, Hodnet.
• Environment Agency visits
• Understanding permit conditions
• The pollution inventory
• Improvement plans
• What is BAT?
5pm to 7pm. Further details Nigel Penlington 01908 844281.
Producers quit in New Zealand
As in most countries around the world, rises in the cost of pork production in New Zealand are not (yet) being passed on to shoppers. New Zealand producers are losing £20 a pig. Ten percent of producers are considering leaving the industry.
Yorkshire at its best
Chris Harland, the designer responsible for Warkup, ACMC, SCA, and Vetsonic ads in Pig World, has been recommended for membership of the Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society. Yorkshire people in particular will be interested in viewing the pictures that made up his successful:http://www.artronaut.com/LRPS
Brazilian beef — best when rare!
Brazil exported only 80 tonnes of beef into the European Union in the first two weeks of April compared to a weekly average of nearly 6,000 tonnes during 2007. — NFU.
Cash is on offer for your big idea
Have you got a big idea you'd like to put into practice? If so you've got until the end of this month to submit it to the BPEX Innovation Fund. A pot of £200,000 has been set aside to help producers and processors develop new ideas, which can be tested and developed for the benefit of the whole industry. For further information email: kt@pbex.org.uk.
Danish price catches up
The Danish pig price rallied strongly by nearly 6p to 102.31p the week before last, and put on another 0.21p last week. The Danes are still the poor men of Europe when their base price is compared with the current European Union average of 114.43. However, they get more than the base price quoted by Danish Crown, plus a year-end bonus that can be worth circa 8p a kilo.
Recent reports in the Danish press suggest Danish banks are not too jittery about the billions being lost by pig producers, because land prices are still rising.
The German pig price has fallen over the past two weeks as a result of lukewarm consumer response to higher prices. This will probably be a problem for most European countries in the months ahead.
European Pig Producers Congress 2008
How to live with the world’s
most sophisticated retailers
European Pig Producers Congress 2008 is at Norwich on June 5-8. The theme: "How to live with the world's most sophisticated retailers".
This will be a once-in-a-lifetime event. In addition to some excellent papers there will be a full social diary for delegates. All pig industry people are urged to attend, to forge links with our opposite numbers in Germany, Holland, Denmark, France etc.
Both members and non-members may attend, but it costs more for non-members.
Securing hotel rooms is organiser Ian Campbell's big issue at present, so if you are proposing to attend please ring him immediately.
Ring 01359 259452
or 07771 923354 NOW!
Go on, interrupt Campbell's weekend. He won't mind.
For prices and registration details go here. For further details about the timetable, go here.
Key papers will be as follows:
• Structure of pig production in Great Britain by Mick Sloyan
• Structure of supply chain by Richard Lowe
• The retailer - Tesco explains what drives its business and what it looks for from its supply chain.
• The processor - meeting retailer expectations as a strong supplier or as a partner in the chain by Tulip International and Tonnies.
• The producer - an equal partner in the supply chain?
The event is based at the Hotel Ramada in Norwich.
Coach to Pig Fair — deadline extended
A 35-seater coach has been booked by South Anglia Catchment Sensitive Farming team for British Pig and Poultry Fair. It will leave Bury St. Edmunds at 8am on Wednesday 14 May with a pick-up at Newmarket at 8.25am. If you are interested call Natasha Jones, 01284 717598, by 5pm Friday May 2.
A rather mixed day on the trading floor and although the DAPP continues to improve closing at 118.05p, some spot buyers seemed reluctant to follow suit, although as the day went by some slightly firmer bids appeared out of the woodwork. Commentary.
Sunday May 4 is pig industry texting day
Get your texting fingers ready, or — as this is the aged pig industry — ask your grandchildren to get theirs ready.
Every radio station in the country has been sent a copy of Stand by Your Ham and the NPA-BPEX campaign for a better pig price wants as many people as possible to request the song.
Here's the plan - send a text message to your local radio station asking it to play the song on Sunday May 4, because if producers don’t get a fair price soon the traditional British Sunday pork roast will become a thing of the past.
Texting numbers will be published here when available.
Auditions for Britain's best dish
As we reported on this page at the time, John Kenny, of Happy Hogs, at Aylsham, Norfolk, did wonders for the popularity of belly pork when his recipe won the accolade of “Britain’s Best Dish” on television.
Researchers are now out and about for “Britain’s Best Dish 2008” and NPA wants to make sure pork wins again — particularly important as prices rise in the shops.
The programme is a nationwide contest to find Britain’s best starter, main course and pudding.
“We are looking for ordinary people (ie. people who aren’t head chefs with years of experience behind them) to cook their signature dishes and enter them into the mix,” says the programme’s Lucy Wedlock.
The overall winner will receive a £10,000 cash prize. The first part of the show involves auditions around the country in which the amateur chefs face a panel of judges. Last year’s judges were John Burton Race, Jilly Goolden and Ed Baines.
“The programme makers tell me that if we can assemble our Stand by Your Ham singers at one of the venue they are more or less guaranteed to get air-time,” said NPA general manager Barney Kay.
Auditions NEWCASTLE Saturday 26th April, Newcastle United FC, St James’ Park; NORWICH Saturday 3rd May, EPIC TV, 112-114 Magdalen Street, NR3 1JD; EDINBURGH Sunday 18th May, The Assembly Rooms, 54 George, Street, EH2 2LR; LONDON Saturday 10th May & 7th June, Glaziers Hall, 9 Montague Close, London Bridge, SE1 9DD; BRISTOL Saturday 24th May, Watershed, 1 Canon’s Rd, Harbourside; LIVERPOOL Saturday 31st May, St George’s Hall, William Brown Street, L1 1JJ.
• If you are attending please could you let Ekta Sopal know (British Pigs Are Worth it Campaign), at 0207 861 3154.
School Farm and Country Fair
By Ian Campbell
The annual School Farm and Country Fair at Suffolk Showground was a fantastic event - again.
3,500 primary school children attended the Suffolk Showground in an event that shows the farming fraternity off to its very best with farmers and allied trades coming together to give of their time and money in order to educate children about the value of food production in this county.
The NPA did their bit with those two shapely masterchefs, Jimmy Butler and Rod Tuck turning Terry Beales’ sausages created from his own recipe into tasty nibbles for the children.
Ladies in Pigs, as ever, supported their men with a Rolls Royce back up service and Jean Turnbull made sure the messages on pork and its recipes got into as many school bags as possible.
I remain impressed that Pauline Butler and Margaret Tuck retain their enthusiasm for this event – perhaps they just need to keep a watching brief on the ‘likely lads’ in case they branch out into a rendition of ‘Stand by your Sausage’ and get themselves arrested.
Trainee-of-the-Year
Candidates who enter this year's Pfizer Trainee of the Year Award will be eligible for an extra PIPR point. More about the award, including an entry form, here.
Capital grants for composting and anaerobic digestion
New grant funding is available to help those wanting to develop composting, aerobic or anaerobic digestion plants to treat organic food waste. The Waste and Resources Action Programme’s Organics Capital Grant Programme VI can fund up to 30 percent of capital set-up costs, including land purchase, installing new infrastructure and buying individual pieces of equipment. Waste and Resources Action Programme website.
Cheap weaners to Britain
Dutch producers have been told there will soon be opportunities for them to export weaners to Britain. The advice is carried in a Dutch farming publication. As reported in April Pig World, the Netherlands expects to be declared free of Aujeszky’s disease in the near future after an extensive vaccination programme. This means it will regain access to the German weaner market. But some producers will also be thinking of sending truckloads of cheap weaners across the North Sea. The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority says nearly half of the pigs on Dutch pig farms are infected with the MRSA bacteria — ‘the hospital bug’. Eleven percent of pork in shops in Holland is contaminated with bacteria, it claims. Defra sees MRSA is an emerging issue in veterinary medicine, because it has been isolated from dairy cows, pigs and chickens outside the United Kingdom. But it says there is no current evidence that food-producing animals form a reservoir of infection in this country.
British Pig and Poultry Fair New Product Award
Entry form can be downloaded here.
Grants up to £10,000
If you farm in a priority water catchment area, you could pull down up to £10,000 in grant aid towards a wide range of capital equipment and works.Eligible items include roofs for slurry and silage stores, concrete yard renewal, rainwater storage tanks, relocation of gates, yard works for clean/dirty water separation, watercourse fencing, fencing for buffer strips, pumps, livestock troughs, farm-track cross-drains, piped culverts in ditches, resurfacing of gateways, surfacing machinery and livestock tracks, roofing of manure storage. Contact details for your local catchment sensitive farming officer are here (page 18).
LIPS Recipe of the Month for April is here
New Product Award
Pig Fair New Product Award entry forms are here.
Pig Discussion Groups
It is useful for the industry to have a topical list of pig discussion group contacts. Please help by making sure your group is represented on the database that will appear on this site well before the next round of meetings. Complete the form HERE (or ask the appropriate person to complete it). Email addresses will be secured in the database so they cannot be robotically harvested for spam.
l NPA Trade Directory l Mechanical data l National Pig Association l Defra l BBC weather l
l Environment Agency l Food Standards Agency l Quality Meat Scotland l Scottish Executive l
Pig World , PO Box 100, Benniworth, Market Rasen LN8 6LE, United Kingdom