Norfolk and Suffolk pig farmers call for urgent support to tackle production bottle-neck
The majority of the UK's ten thousand pig farms are found in Norfolk and Suffolk
Last updated 1st Sep 2021
Pig farmers in Norfolk and Suffolk say they urgently need support to tackle the current bottle-neck at production plants.
The National Pig Association estimates there's currently a surplus of 70,000 pigs on UK farms. A surplus which is believed to be increasing by 15,000 every week.
It's believed this is being driven by labour shortages, that have been created by many eastern European workers leaving the UK due to Brexit and the pandemic.
Rob Mutimer, a Norfolk pig farmer and head of the association told us that support from the Government is needed "now" to ensure that 'pigs in blankets' are still on the menu at Christmas.
"It's not a matter of waiting until the first week of December. We need to get our supply chain up and running now, in September, so we can get produce ready for the festive period."
"We desperately need a Covid Recovery plans from the Government. We need visas for staff to come over- we know there's butchers in Eastern Europe that are very capable of coming over"
He went on to tell us that the extension of agricultural schemes already in place would help the industry. " We have the seasonal workers scheme that helps the fruit industry. The extension of this would help us get in some butchers in the short term to help this country recover".
"If we don't, I'm worried we could lose a lot of processors and manufactures in the short-term, because their business can't survive this."
He told us that the industry is currently "staring down the barrel" and that he's "never know a situation" where consumption is up, but farmers can't get their produce from the farm to the fork.
As a pig farmer himself, he told us that he's currently spending more on pig food than ever before.
He concluded by saying that while he needs to sell 1,200 piglets every three weeks, he's currently only been selling 800. A sequence of events which means his farm is getting more and more clogged for space.