The British pig industry has made huge strides in professionalism but is being “sold short by Brussels” in some areas, National Pig Association (NPA) chairman Richard Longthorp told MEPs in Brussels this morning.

Three new industry members have been elected to the National Pig Association (NPA) new Allied Industry Group, joining seven other existing members.

Copa-Cogeca has welcomed the opening of a pigmeat storage scheme by the European Commission (EC) as a “step in the right direction” but has also voiced its “regret” over what the scheme doesn’t include.

Farmers and vets will soon be able to access up-to-date veterinary medicines information on their smart phones, as the result of a new service being developed by the National Office of Animal Health (NOAH).

BPEX weekly pig prices, slaughter data and commentary for Great Britain.

Merchant's ex-farm buying-in straw prices (£/t) supplied by the British Hay & Straw Merchants Association.

Danish Crown and Tican, Denmark’s two cooperative slaughterhouse companies, have agreed to merge, launching a membership and competition authority process to approve the decision.

Auctioneer Peter Crichton has announced the sale on Saturday, March 28, of outdoor equipment from South Lynch Estates, Dorset, who have kept outdoors pigs on the Crichel Estate for a number of years.

An application by Midland Pig Producers to create Foston Pig Unit and Anaerobic Digestion Plant in Derbyshire has been refused by the Environment Agency (EA), after a campaign which lasted four years.

A European Commission move to introduce private storage aid for pigmeat, to ease pressure on the EU pigmeat market, has been voted on today by Member States and will be formally opened next week.

A fresh analysis of how the Russian pig market has changed in response to the country’s two 2014 import bans has been completed by BPEX, drawing mixed conclusions on the long-term prospects for EU suppliers.  

Four key areas to help the UK food and farming industry grow were unveiled today by Environment Secretary, Elizabeth Truss, in her address to the National Farmers Union annual conference in Birmingham.

Just 53% of the UK’s food needs will be produced from home farms in the next 25 years, according to a new report published today by the National Farmers Union (NFU), coinciding with the opening of the union’s annual conference in Birmingham.

The proposed opening of private storage measures for pork products is due to be put to the European Commission (EC) committee for the Common Organisation of Agricultural Markets at its meeting today, Tuesday, February 24.

Five jointly-funded research awards, drawing more than £2.3 million from UK funds and $2.3m from the US have been announced in support of “high impact diseases and animal health issues” as addressed by the US/UK collaborative animal health and disease and veterinary immune reagents programme.

The National Farmers’ Union's (NFU) Back British Farming Charter has secured its first brand product signature with the soup company, Crosse & Blackwell, announcing its support for “promoting, selling and serving home-grown produce”.

Sainsbury’s is extending its horticulture and agriculture apprenticeship scheme run to include applicants from its livestock and poultry supply chains.

There were a few slight hopeful rays of watery, wintery sunshine on the pig front today, and although the SPP continues its decline and has now dropped to 135.06p, because of the scarcity of spot pigs (which is hardly surprising when you have a look at the difference in values between spot and contract), one or two spot buyers were looking for pigs rather than leaving their phones off the hook, with the result that spot bacon was traded in some cases around the 112p to 115p mark.

Fresh and frozen pork exports from EU-28 declined by 2% in 2014, finishing the year on a total of 1.6 million tonnes, according to BPEX.

The strength of the British pig industry, especially in terms of high level quality assurance and welfare standards, will be highlighted during a special breakfast meeting with MEPs in Brussels next week by the National Pig Association (NPA) and the National Farmers Union (NFU).

A new one-shot vaccine against oedema disease, which can cause piglet mortality of up to 10% in affected herds, is being launched by Hysolv Animal Health in the UK and Ireland.

Fully funded clinics with farm buildings’ specialists, covering such items as how to design a layout to optimise animal health and performance, are being offered to farmers in Wales under a Welsh government and EU-backed scheme.

A Defra-run “smarter guidance and data” review, including pig farming questions, aims to reduce the time needed for new businesses to find out about their obligations by at least 80%.

The potential to secure improvements in animal health, welfare and disease resistance, are all implicated in the awarding of £1.9 million of Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) funding to scientists at Roslin Institute in Edinburgh.

Food prices are the "top concern" for 50% of consumers, according to the latest biannual public attitudes tracker published by the Food Standards Agency (FSA).

Irish pig farm leaders have welcomed a price increase this week which was “passed back” by two processors, but with questions about why others haven’t done the same.

The British Veterinary Association (BVA) has warned today that there must be no “erosion” of the link between vets and farmers and no loss of veterinary services in rural areas.

Canada’s pork industry has been given the equivalent of just over £1 million of new government funding to strengthen traceability and biosecurity, including the development of an app for disease surveillance and research into improving truck washing.

There was a 1% drop in January in the share of the final retail price of pork received by producers, according to BPEX, taking the level to its lowest point since January 2009.

A specialist UK provider of on-farm environmental assessments, designed to improve understanding concerning greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and the food chain, has been acquired by the global animal nutrition company, Alltech.

The latest DNA results for retail pigmeat sales in Ireland show that nearly one-third of samples tested in butcher shops around the country were not Irish, even though butchers, when asked where products came from, did not admit to buying imported meat, according to the Irish Farmers Association (IFA).

India, Hong Kong and Japan are all on BPEX’s export promotions list over the next few months as the organisation seeks to maintain a strong international show presence on behalf of British producers.

A Chair and up to four external members for the Animal Disease Surveillance Governance Board is being sought by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).

Potential threats to animal health and welfare have prompted a Scottish government review of the rules covering the importation of exotic animals as pets.