The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Pig industry potential teetering on knife edge
This year is shaping up to be a pivotal one for the Scottish pig sector with the supply chain on the brink of taking advantage of strong market development opportunities but also facing the very real risk of a serious running down of the national herd.
As Scotland is just 24% self-sufficient in domestically-produced pork, the scope for growth is enormous.
Unfortunately, the disruptive impact of Covid-19 on abattoir and processing activities, ongoing labour shortages, and the backlog of finished pigs on Scottish farms has really left the sector teetering on a knife edge.
There is an estimated five-week backlog of pigs on farms across Scotland, a barrier to trade which could take three to four months to clear unless radical government action is implemented.
Caused primarily by Covid and the loss of a vital licence to export products to China, the backlog means processors have to accommodate pigs that are heavier than ideal and effectively out-of-spec.
The carcasses being presented to member businesses regularly require substantial overworking to convert them into prime retail cuts and added value products.
Set alongside in-plant pressures linked to Covid regulations and regular staff shortages due to selfisolation, this means that maintaining throughput and volumes is a massive challenge and puts downward pressures on our margins while processing input costs continue to rise.
The labour and logistics issues which blighted abattoir and processing activities throughout 2021 have not gone away.
These issues must be taken seriously in 2022, and beyond, if Scottish pork is to have a future.
The dilemma for farmers is whether or not to run down sow numbers until the backlog is cleared, a strategy which risks the whole supply chain not having sufficient finished pigs available when the market eventually corrects itself.
The hardship funding, made available by the Scottish Government, is welcome in this context, but is still contributing only a few pence per kilo to farmers who are losing a lot more than that on every pig they finish.
This is a sector which is worth protecting, it must not be allowed to slowly die off, as happened with Scottish poultry.
The Scottish Government urgently needs to assess the public value in having a longterm Scottish pork industry and come forward with short-term support to keep the supply chain intact while it rides out the current storm.
The 24% of the Scottish market which is supplied by Scottish pork gives us the shortest possible supply chain.
The relentless spread of African swine fever (ASF) eastwards across Europe is another major threat, especially with it now having reached Italy, from which the UK imports cured meat products.
ASF can lie dormant in such products for up to six months, a threat which the UK Government continues to ignore.
While strict veterinary standards are rigorously applied to meat exports from the UK to the EU, the government has failed to introduce equivalent import standards for EU produce entering the UK.
Our island geography should give us strong protection from ASF, but the government continues to leave our industry exposed to unregulated imports, a fact which could end in disaster for the Scottish pig sector.