A need for a piggie back-up...

THE 'saviour' of Scotland's main pork processing facility at Brechin, Browns Food Group, has an uphill task ahead of it. But with its proven track record, pig producers can be as confident as they can be in these times that the volatility of their market has stabilised at least a little.

What remains as a worry, though, is just how the loss of one abattoir facility due to a fire and then the loss of an export licence due to a Covid-19 outbreak, could become so catastrophic in a relatively short time. Bizarrely, the troubled outfit was also hit by, of all things, a temporary shortage of CO2!

So, it must be a relief to pig producers that their only real outlet has been 'saved'. The lesson remains, though, that we have such a paucity of capacity that nothing in Scotland was available to back up the loss of a single killing station. Such was the extent of this, the animal welfare and the mental health of those producers that were let down, could easily have been tragic.

It's been a tortuous route to get back to this point and hats off to those who worked tirelessly to put this deal together, but equally there remains the fact that we have no back up plan for such an eventuality.

It seems absurd that the knock-on effect from one plant should have such awful consequences. Therefore – with a nod to Boris – there has to be a Plan B. And it needs to be a good one ... for the future health and welfare of humans and animals.

Showcasing farm talent...

There's also a pat on the back due to AgriScot organisers and their board of directors, who defied all the Covid-related odds and actually had an event this week. Albeit it was scaled back to include the participants in its many award schemes only.

But it was a big success for those who were there and it was great to be back at an event and meet real people face-to-face. Once again, the standard of entries was extremely high and a reminder once more that agriculture is a resilient industry that's capable of great things.

No doubt over lunch, the CabSec for Rural Affairs, Mairi Gougeon, was appraised of the rising fear from within the industry that spiralling costs are going to hit every sector hard. These will also be more than enough to clobber any rises that have been had on outputs which, to be fair, have been reasonable for the last 12 months.

Farmers are also only too aware that the cost of 'money' is also going up, with two interest rate rises in the past few weeks. Indeed, there are many businesses out there who remain heavily geared and it's going to take a miracle of extra income to counter the double whammy of that and the hikes in inputs.

Some certainty in which direction future farm support is going would be a good thing!