Peter Woodhall and his son-in law Nigel Lloyd, of Warwick Farm, near Shrewsbury, are having to close their pig farm as ‘feed prices have gone through the roof’, Meghan Taylor writes.
With a nearly 50% increase in the cost of feed, the farm went from profit to potential losses of hundreds of thousands of pounds – almost overnight.
Previously producing 5,000 pigs a year, for bacon, for a supermarket, there were plans to expand the farm with the view that Mr Lloyd would take it over once Mr Woodhall retired. However, the crisis is still proving ruinous for many businesses, with Warwick Farm being one of the latest farms to go.
The current situation has left Mr Lloyd thinking that ‘there won’t be the place for a small family farm’. He added: “If something doesn’t change, then it’s pretty terminal for the British pig industry.”
“Sadly, the last six months, feed prices have gone up about 48-50%,” Mr Woodhall told the BBC. At the same time, the pork price plummeted and a lack of abattoir workers caused a huge backlog on farms.
Mr Lloyd also discussed the wider reaching effects of the farm’s closure: “We employed a small team of staff here and they’ve all had to go unfortunately.”
“There will continue to be pork products in the supermarket, but it won’t be British, it won’t be to high standards and it won’t be investing in British countryside,” he concluded.