Tesco to pay out more to pig farmers as industry warns of ‘critical’ situation

theguardian.com:

Tesco is to hand pig farmers £6.6m in additional support, taking the total to £10m, after warnings that a slew of producers could go out of business.

The UK’s biggest supermarket said farmers would get £6.6m until August on top of £3.4m handed out since March under an “accelerated and enhanced payment plan”, after being criticised for not paying a “fair price” for its pork.

Tesco is the latest supermarket to hand farmers extra cash in the face of surging costs of feed caused by the war in Ukraine, after an export slump last year combined with Covid disruption and Brexit-related shortages of abattoir workers.

A recent industry poll found that four out of five producers would go out of business within a year unless their financial situation improved.

The National Pig Association (NPA) wrote to Tesco asking for help as it said the industry had faced an unprecedented crisis over the past 18 months. It said the price shock caused by the war had turned a “very challenging financial situation to a critical one”.

The NPA has said there are 100,000 pigs stuck on farms that should have gone to slaughter, with farmers losing in excess of £50 a pig due to the enormous gap between the cost of production and the price that retailers were willing to pay.

It had called on Tesco to act after rivals including Waitrose, the Co-op, Marks & Spencer, Aldi, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s agreed to pay more for British pork through their dedicated supply chains.

Waitrose, which is less than half the size of Tesco, has offered £16m, while Sainsbury’s offered £7.8m.

The NPA chair, Rob Mutimer, said: “We are very pleased that Tesco has responded following our letter to chief executive Ken Murphy, with some much-needed extra financial support for the pig