Kitchen Garden Forum

I never thought I would hear a large pig farmer say “I make more money from Pigs Manure than I do from my Pork”
This farmer is losing £18.00. for every porker he sends to market. As a large pig farmer he has invested in a digester to produce electricity from the methane drawn off the manure and the residue is sold as fertilizer. This is a large concern but small concerns are simply going out of business.
The Supermarkets and Processors increase their prices regularly but none of this increase finds its way back to the producer. Pork farmers have been warning this country for several years that they cannot cope with the low prices they receive but have to suffer the increases to them which are disproportionate.
Soya meal, which accounts for 25% of pig meal, which has to be non GM, is rising in price at an alarming rate from £160/t to £330/t in less than 12 months. Because the Soya must be non-GM and the sources of non-GM Soya are becoming rarer than hens teeth.
The large producers now lump all Soya together which means the larger and cheaper supplies from Brazil and the USA are denied to this country. This means that we have to buy mostly from The Argentine and the Argentine government have just slapped a swingeing export tax on all agricultural exports which has not taken effect in UK yet so prices are due to rise even further. I feel that this is the thing that is going to be the straw that will break the back of the small pig producer.
The large producer has found a new market for his pork. Suckling Pig exported to China. This means that these pigs take 16 weeks to finishing weight and he can get as much or even more than he can for a Porker that would take many more weeks to finishing weight. He suggests that this will eventually lead to the end of pork supplied to the home market and Pork Sausages, the nations favourite, will become so expensive because there simply will not be the pork meat about to make them.
The same will be for Pork joints, Ham, Bacon and other pork products.
The British public chose to believe the lies spread about GM and are now more obsessed with the over use of plastic bags whilst a time honoured part of our farming heritage quietly slips away without a murmur. How very sad is that!
JB.

I agree with you JB....the way the supermarkets treat the farmers in this country is abysmal.....it's a f****** disgrace.

I'm moving away from the supermarkets and going direct to the small producers to get my little bit of meat so that I know the money goes direct to the farmer.

Grockie was in Tescos yesterday and they wanted £1....yep you read it right....£1 for a single lettuce. She said to the bloke "Who prices these, Dick Turpin> Stuff this mate, i'm off to Netto"

I feel that, in the not too distant future, all our food will have to come from abroad and we, as an island, will be held to ransom by the continent.

Hopefully, it will never come to this but, as i see it, it will.

A very sad and distressing state of affairs when an honest man can't earn an honest wage cos he is constantly shafted by the big multi nationals.

It isn't just food...the same practices are rife throughout out most, if not all, major retailers.

You would be equally shocked at the prices the manufacturers have to work to to produce anything these days... they can't so production goes to the far Eastern Countries.

When I was a lad "Made in Britain" denoted quality

I'm really sorry for the plight of all farmers & pig farmers seem to be doing worse than many

Johnboy wrote:Soya meal, which accounts for 25% of pig meal, which has to be non GM, is rising in price at an alarming rate

Out of interest, how did they all manage before they used Soya and before GM versions were available? I assume the latter only goes back around 10 years.

Surely before that they made greater use of swill, which I understand became discontinued after recent foot & mouth outbreaks.

Lizzie, Grockie was lucky to see lettuce in her tesco, went to mine on Monday no lettuce (whole) no salad bags no english toms plenty of polish ones makes me wonder when did the last english salad producer go out of business?. But this Tesco's tell me"this is what our customers want"
What cheap imported food with high food miles and massive profits for Tesco, more like "this is what Tesco tells their customers what they want"

From yesterday's price for Lamb at Shrewsbury Market we are all set for a big surprise.
At Christmas Time lambs were £36.00. each and yesterday they were £90.00. each!
The explanation is that due to Blue Tongue the continent has no lambs available so these all went for export. It is forecasted that lamb could reach even higher prices. I wonder what Morrison's price for lamb will be when I visit them this afternoon.
They are sure not to miss a trick!
I do not buy meat from supermarkets but buy all locally sourced through a local meat syndicate.
JB.

I wanted to buy some strawberries in tesco last night. The English 'new season' ones were £2.49, but the ones from Spain were only £1.99 for the same sized punnet. Why is that? They were for a special treat (end of very stressful SATS for eldest son) so I bought the English ones - they're much nicer. But most people would have just bought the cheaper ones, even if they really wanted English. Is that really customer choice?