A Wiltshire pig farmer has highlighted the huge struggles pig farmers are currently facing, as costs of production soar, leaving many on the brink.
Following his appearance on Channel 4 last week, Pig World columnist Cameron told BBC Points West he was now ‘losing a substantial amount of money’ on every pig he sold and was ‘fed up and struggling to cope’. Some pig farmers in worse positions than he is are in a ‘very difficult place mentally’, he said.
“Wheat is a major part of a pig’s diet and that’s gone up from £150 a tonne to over £300 a tonne. We have been losing about £5,000 a week since Christmas.
“I’ve been carrying 500 extra pigs on the farm which would normally have been sold because there’s been a huge issue with insufficient labour in pig processing plants,” he said.
NPA chief executive Zoe Davies said the future of the UK pig industry was at risk and called for the Government to compensate the pig sector. “We’ve been asking the government for direct financial support for some time,” she said.
“Other countries within the UK and Europe have been providing significant support packages for their producers and we would like our government to do the same.
“We are already relatively small-scale and if we don’t support those farmers remaining we will lose critical mass in the industry and end up importing all of the pork that we require.”