DEFRA WAS accused this week of failing to listen to the demands from the pig sector in their hour of need.

During a heated evidence session of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Defra secretary George Eustice told members that it wasn’t until this September, that pig processors raised concerns over labour shortages and that their main concern had always been on regaining access to the Chinese market.

His comments were met by furore from other members of the committee, who pointed out that organisations like the National Pig Association had been in crisis talks with Defra over labour concerns since February.

Efra chair, Neil Parish, accused him and the government of not acting early enough: “The fact we are having to slaughter pigs, cull them on farm, blatantly shows the government did not act in time.”

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Mr Eustice told the committee that the UK Government had acted quickly to support the sector once it was aware of the scale of the challenge and that the situation was now under control. “We will clear the backlog (in pigs) by the end of February or March. Then the gestation period for pigs and the fact that farmers are now culling some sows, and reducing their output to bring supply and production back into balance, means by next summer, we anticipate things will be stable again,” he claimed.

Mr Eustice announced that overseas butchers recruited via the temporary butcher scheme would start arriving from December 1, which he hoped will give pig farmers confidence to keep pigs on farm and stop the need for further culls – which have so far reached 14,000.

Managing director of the Scottish pig producers, Andy McGowan, cautiously welcomed the actions taken by the UK Government to alleviate the backlog but told The SF that trade associations had raised labour concerns with Defra and the Home Office during the first half of the year. He criticised the slow pace at which the visa scheme was being handled: “By requiring processors to go through an agency provider it is slowing the whole process down and forcing everyone into a less efficient system when time is of the essence.

“We might see butchers arriving from December 1, but by the time they undergo certain training and hygiene procedures we are not going to be motoring until January.”

He stressed that the biggest concern to pig farmers was that imports are being waved into the country with no health checks despite an outbreak of African swine fever in mainland Europe and that UK supermarket shelves were ‘bulging with German pork products’ which are winging their way into the market, avoiding the 7% extra costs burdening UK producers since export checks were brought in post-Brexit.

Of the ‘Made in the UK, sold to the world’ campaign launched this week by the Department for International Trade – which aimed to get more British firms exporting to reach a £1 trillion a year export target by 2030 – he said: “We can’t be looking at trade as a one-way street. The UK Government is utterly neglecting responsibilities at the import end and waving in product without maintaining standards in relation to animal health.

"They are the ones that set the boundaries and rules. Currently, they are rigging the thing against us and doing nothing to protect the domestic market,” he said.