Producers get a grip on their markets
Pig sector still struggling
Despite some welcome signs of change in the fortunes of the pig industry, there are some ominous long term indicators. slaughter weights are starting to ease off from January’s high point. But at about 94kg deadweight, this year’s slaughter pigs are still five kg a head more that this time last year.
Welcome news from Morison’s when the retailer raised its contribution to production costs (SPP) by 30p to GBP 1.80. Pig producers need more retailers to do likewise. More to the point, producers need a more reliable system for recovering their cost of production, just to stay in business.
January pigmeat imports totalling 83,000 tonnes were up over 20% in December, not to mention double the volumes imported a year ago. Bacon imports in January were 27,000 tonnes, compared to 9,500 tonnes a year ago and 17,500 tonnes in December.
Market trends like these spell trouble for UK pig producers.
Since writing this piece in the spring, the AHDB has reported a recovery in market figures to nearer normal levels. However, this does not mean that pig farmers are any better off than they were earlier in the year.
40k and counting
Delegates at the National Farmers’ Union conference at the end of February learn that at least 40,000 healthy pigs have been culled and taken out of the food chain because of a continuing failure by abattoirs to collect and slaughter all the pigs they contracted to take last year.
Pig farmers up and down the UK are struggling in an ongoing crisis that is leaving hundreds o pigs a week on farms, eating food that is hitting record highs. The BBC cites a Norfolk farmer (https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-60516864) who is sending 200 a week out of his 300 contracted animals, leaving him with 100 more pigs every week to feed. They eat 10.5 kg of feed a day ad by the time they are finally killed, they will have eaten an extra quarter of a tonne of feed. This is unplanned buying for the animals concerned, at a time when feed is at an all-time high and wheat prices are well over GBP300 a tonne.
Asparagus and strawberries
Money is a totally meaningless measure of value for many things. Take food production for instance.
From an accountant’s point of view, there is no monetary distinction to be made between a farm growing a thousand pound’s worth of wheat during a crop year and a market gardener’s business growing a thousand pound’s worth of asparagus and strawberries over the same period of time. It is only when you come to live on these harvests that the difference becomes apparent.
Luxury crops such as asparagus and strawberries, or Yorkshire rhubarb, became potentially more profitable when the Victorian railway network suddenly cut the cost of market access, moving delicate products quickly and efficiently. Market gardeners were by definition close to urban centres, but the railways extended the range over which they could sell.
The reason asparagus-and-strawberries is such a common combination is that both crops need a lot of skilled labour to harvest. Having assembled a gang of labourers to pick asparagus, it makes sense to have another crop to follow through and move the workforce from one to the next as the season progressed.
In the case of Yorkshire rhubarb, production is concentrated into an area surrounded by railway lines. Like the asparagus-and-strawberries growers, market access was the key to their profitability.
However, especially given the short seasons for these luxury crops, no-one is going to live on a diet of asparagus and strawberries. We use a different set of values to establish what a sustainable food system might look like and what it would need to produce.
Will this crop feed Africa?
The BBC is running an upbeat story about ensets, a relative of the banana grown in Ethiopia. The stems and roots of the plant are used to make a bread or a coarse porridge. The conical fruits are discarded since they are inedible.
The interest in this obscure crop is that it might grow successfully across a far wider range than it currently occupies. Whether it takes the continent of Africa by storm remains to be seen, but the idea of growing a new crop to feed local populations makes a welcome change.
Visit https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-60074407
Why pig slaughter weights matter
Since the end of October last year average pig slaughter weights have been rising steadily, hitting 95 kg during the week ending January 8, 2022. This is about 5kg above the long term average. This is due to abattoirs refusing to take all the pigs they contracted for at the beginning of the breeding cycle. Processors face a shortage of skilled labour in the killing lines and boning halls, with the result that pigs being held back on farms.
[chart to follow]
Here, they are eating feed that was not costed into the business and since UK male pigs are not routinely castrated, they are increasingly likely to pass puberty and be affected by boar taint with the onset of breeding condition. This renders them unsaleable and inedible.
The weight of a pig at slaughter is critical to its commercial value, since overweight pigs put on fat in the muscle tissue and their conformation is no good for retail or foodservice clients.
A week later and no sign of any change.
British pig prices dropped even further in the week ending January 15. The Standard Pig Price (SPP) dropped to 139p/kg, the lowest it has been for almost a year. Pig producers are still looking after pigs that should have left their holding long ago, as the average carcase weight set a new record at 95.42kg (source AHDB). Since these animals would normally have left for slaughter, farmers are having to buy grain on the spot market, pushing feed prices up in the process.
Migros marks major milestone
Swiss retail giant Migros has achieved the first stage of its 2030 carbon neutrality plan. All the multiple’s retail premises have completed their transition to become carbon neutral.
As the country’s largest food business and retailer, Migros operates the lion’s share of the national retail park. It has been a dominant force on the national retail scene for decades.
Between now and 2030, Migros will cut a further 80% of its greenhouse gas emissions from its business activities, including its extensive food manufacturing arm.
Instead of buying carbon credits to offset its remaining environmental overheads, Migros will “inset” its remaining emissions. One example of this arrangement is a project working with 1,000 Thai peasant families to raise the environmental standards of their rice growing. For instance, there are gains to be made by not flooding paddy fields, which area significant source of methane emissions. The result is a contribution towards a potential reduction of 60% in the crop’s carbon footprint worldwide.
British pigs start 2022 with record average carcase weight
As overcrowded pig farms send their first lorryloads of slaughter pigs to the abattoirs, AHDB is reporting an all-time high of 94.12 kg for the national average carcase weight. As if proof of poor conformation was needed, back probe measurements averaged 11.8mm in the week ending January 1. Predictably, the percentage of pigs meeting the SPP specification has sagged to 84%, compared to a long term average of 93%. Without culling or moving thousands of pigs that have been contracted, but not taken by processors, the pig sector crisis will deepen: ignoring it will not solve anything.
AHDB pork data can be found here.
Nose before yes, says Morrisons
Yorkshire-based supermarket Morrisons is going to give up using best-before dates on a lot of its liquid milk lines and is telling customers to sniff the milk as they take it out of the fridge and make their own minds up as to whether or not it is fit to drink. The story appeared on the BBC, which added that milk is one of the most heavily wasted foodstuffs, with 490 million pints being dumped every year, 85 million of which is slung out because it had passed its best-before date. Properly managed refrigeration can keep milk wholesome beyond this time, which is a suggestion not a statement of fact.
Shaken, not stirred
The EUR15 billion Campari group has been talking to the FT about shifting the focus of its marketing to drinking at home, since the pandemic has all but shut down the hospitality sector. Campari reckons that indoor drinking will remain a growth area in the cocktail market, even after the pandemic subsides. Here is an improbably long link to the story in the FT, with no guarantee that it will will work for very long, if at all.
https://click.news-alerts.ft.com/f/content-e9e38332-9762-48cd-b206-b030b2707d6f/HgxNZkS8LqpL8e8zCHJ1bA~~/AAAAAQA~/RgRjvkEiP0ShaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnQuY29tL2NvbnRlbnQvZTllMzgzMzItOTc2Mi00OGNkLWIyMDYtYjAzMGIyNzA3ZDZmP2Rlc2t0b3A9dHJ1ZSZzZWdtZW50SWQ9N2M4ZjA5YjktOWI2MS00ZmJiLTk0MzAtOTIwOGE5ZTIzM2M4I215ZnQ6bm90aWZpY2F0aW9uOmRhaWx5LWVtYWlsOmNvbnRlbnRXCGZpbnRpbWVzQgph1SK822HozVHBUhRwZXRlckBjcm9zc2tleS5jby51a1gEAAAAAA~~