Farming Minister Victoria Prentis has asked pig farmers to send her copies of their contracts with processors, as the Government collates evidence for its inquiry into the pork supply chain.
She made the requests during Defra Questions in the House of Commons, which saw Ministers accused of doing ‘too little, too late’ to support the pig sector and MPs raise the question of food security in the wake of the impact of the Ukraine war on food supplies and costs.
Conservative MP, Dr Neil Hudson, a member of the EFRA Committee pointed out that the ‘dreadful situation in Ukraine has brought food security into sharp relief’. He asked Farming Minister Victoria Prentis for an update on ‘what the Government are doing to avert this human and animal welfare crisis?’
Mrs Prentis said that the dreadful situation in Ukraine ‘means that food security in the broader sense is uppermost in all our minds’.
“We must feel very fortunate in this country that we grow almost all our own grain and are able to be so self-sufficient—74% self-sufficient in the food that we grow. That is not to say that we should be complacent. The Government are working very closely with industry at all levels, with processors and retailers, and not just in the pig sector,” she said.
Following up, Shadow Farming Minister Daniel Zeichner noted that the Minister did not address the question about the pig crisis. “Pig farmers have been in crisis month after month after month, and, frankly, the Government’s response has always been too little and too late,” he said.
“More than 40,000 pigs already culled on farms have been completely wasted. It is becoming apparent that one problem is the failure of the processors to honour the contracts to farmers.
“How much more suffering has to be endured before the Minister does as she has hinted that she might do and passes this to the Competition and Markets Authority, so that we can find out what has been going wrong in what increasingly looks like a broken market?”
Mrs Prentis said Defra has been ‘careful to work with the pig industry in lockstep at all stages and have brought into play actual schemes that are helping them today’.
“I agree that the supply chain in pigs is in trouble. I have said that frequently, and I have started a review of that supply chain—a serious and systematic review—which may well result in regulatory change. In the collection of the evidence, we will certainly refer matters to the Competition and Markets Authority at the appropriate time, when we have the right evidence.”
“In the interim, I would be most grateful if any pig farmer or producer sent me a copy of a contract, which has been very, very hard to find, as I would very much like to see that.”
EFRA chair Neil Parish then asked Defra Secretary George Eustice what he is doing do to protect grain supplies in this country, given the impact of ‘Putin’s murderous regime’ on exports from Ukraine.
“Secondly, what talks will he have with the retailers to ensure that we can share some of the pain of the costs, which pig and poultry just cannot stand? Thirdly, how are we going to create greater food security and grow more grain in this country, which we are in need of?” he asked.
Mr Eustice responded that Defra published a highly comprehensive analysis of our food security, including a focus on the production to supply ratio, which showed that we produce roughly three quarters of the food that we are able to grow and consume here.
“On his specific point, we were aware of the risk of these events in Ukraine and set up a dedicated group within DEFRA at the beginning of January to do contingency planning for the possible impacts on food. We do not import wheat from Ukraine, or only very small quantities; we are largely self-sufficient in wheat and we import the balance from Canada. However, we are looking at the cost of inputs, particularly for the livestock sector, such as poultry,” he added.