Private pigmeat storage ends

The European Commission has ended private storage for pigmeat, reflecting an improvement in the market.

This scheme was introduced in March when prices were running around 20% below the EU’s five-year average, mainly because of the impact of the Russian import ban.

Since then around 63,000 tonnes have been put into store for between three and five months, with Spain and Denmark the biggest users of the scheme.

This product will now come back on to what should be a stronger market.

The volume that went into storage was well below the 140,000 tonnes the last time a private storage scheme was in place in 2011.

The European Commission has said the weakness of the euro is boosting prospects for the export of pigmeat to China.

This could indirectly benefit Scottish producers by taking some eurozone competition out of the UK market.

Sales to China were up by almost a quarter in the first three months of the year, but the loss of the Russian market is still hurting.

Fifteen member states have opted to delay by four weeks the closing date for submitting single payment claim forms.

Within the UK, Scotland and England have opted to delay the application date, while Northern Ireland and Wales have stuck to the original May 15 date.

The gamble with delaying the deadline is that if too many farmers do so it may be impossible to process the forms to allow the target of a December date for the majority of payments to be met.

Meanwhile the soft loan scheme, which was mainly targeted at young farmers, via the European Investment Bank (EIB) has been challenged by the EU’s financial watchdogs, the Court of Auditors.

This was part of an initiative to leverage from the EIB five times the amount put in by national governments through their rural development programmes.

Interest in the scheme, launched in March, has been limited.

The auditors say they are wary of the scheme because of the failure of a similar scheme in the past.

It might be two years from the horse meat crisis, but this week the Commission’s little known judicial cooperation body, Eurojust, reported significant progress with the investigation into the scandal.

Coordinated action by a number of police forces led to 26 arrests in connection with horse meat allegedly being introduced into the food chain.

Also seized were computers and horse passports needed to move horses around Europe. While most details are being kept confidential to boost the chances of successful prosecutions it is believed the activities centred on Belgium and involved organised criminal gangs.