BPEX Weekly: March 19, 2010

Marketing News

Bacon Week Round-up

The winners of the Bring Home the Bacon competition will be announced on Monday, at an awards luncheon to be held at Butchers Hall, London. Anton will be there after a morning of regional radio interviews, to present the awards to representatives from an independent retailer, a supermarket retailer and a foodservice supplier. And one of those well deserved three will become the overall Bacon Connoisseurs’ Week champion.  Details of those winners will be placed on Facebook and the lovepork websites

Back to Top

All retailers are promoting in advance of Bacon Connoisseurs’ Week showing an almost 100% participation. From promotional signs at the fixture, to on-pack stickers, in-store radio ads, in-store bacon tastings, to recipe leaflets, plus some money off or multiple purchase offers.

MORRISONS

Currently have running a British pork loin joint promotion for £3 per joint (almost 1kg) appearing on gondola ends. 

LIDL is displaying posters in all their shop front windows featuring a huge promotion on British Red Tractor bacon

SOMERFIELD stores are now all 100% British on all their bacon/pork/sausages and ham

M&S is now 100% British on all their bacon lines

Back to Top

The last roadshow of the season is at Haywards Heath in Ardingly, on 24th March.  Entries are still being received for products varying from sausages, bacon and pies to ready meals.  So if you have a prize winning product, download a form now by clicking here  and be in with a chance of becoming a Regional Category Champion. Plus  with over 14 exhibitors attending this show there will be lots on offer and plenty of chances to chat or catch up with other like minded butchers.

Back to Top

Knowledge Transfer

Tip of the Week: Injections

Is it time to review your injection technique and protocols? Aim: To get the right amount of medicine into the right part of the pig, without causing harm along the way.

If you don’t get the right amount of medicine into the right place you are wasting time and money.

Staff training is essential; anyone injecting, or assisting in injecting, pigs must understand and practice the correct injection techniques and follow protocols.

Make sure that everyone is fully aware of the injection protocols, including where and how much of each product should be injected, needle hygiene and storage and disposal after treatment.

Back to Top

Water prices are going up, abstraction licensing is likely to change and climate change will increase stress on resources, but you can save money through harvesting rainwater, building reservoirs and working with other farmers and growers.

A free workshop is being held by Forum for the Future, which will look at how your business can be profitable in a changing climate.Topics to be covered include rainwater harvesting to water abstractor groups, and a farm walk around the local Vale Fresco site.

The event takes place on 30 March, starting at 9:30am, in Old Badsey Worcs. The workshop is FREE to attend with lunch included. To register call Will Frazer on 07825 204434 or email Farming Futures.

Back to Top

Small-scale pig keepers will get expert practical advice at two special workshops in the north east.

These interactive workshops will help pig keepers improve their knowledge and get the most out of their pigs, with the latest information on relevant legislation and production practices.

The topics will include: basic needs and welfare of the pig, housing and feeding, handling, health, official requirements of pig keeping, slapmarking, tagging and record keeping.

The events are taking place at Hexham Auction Mart on 22 March and Morpeth Golf Club on 23 March.

The workshops will run from 12.30pm until 5pm and cost just £25. For details or to book your place contact Lis Ravn: 07891656784

Back to Top

---

Grand Designs

Come along and design your perfect outdoor unit, with a few surprises along the way! This fun and interactive BPEX workshop is taking place at Larkmead Vet Practice, Cholsey on 23 March, starting at 3:30pm. For details contact Helen Thoday: 07973 701202. 

Back to Top

The ‘Back to the Future’ Knowledge Transfer conference was a full house and great success, attended by more than 110 producers, allied industry members and journalists.

The mood was positive and practical with a speaker line-up that producers found relevant to their business.

Australian researcher Paul Hughes’ views and experience on gilt management strategies made a particular impact, with 81% of producers intending to go home and consider that area of their system. For more about the event, click here.

Back to Top

National News:

Latest BPHS Dates

Below are the latest BPHS assessment dates.

Assessment dates for January to June 2010 in all participating abattoirs have been published and are available on the BPEX website.

Back to Top

Marketing group Thames Valley Cambac has relocated to Wallingford, Oxfordshire. BPEX and NPA chairman Stewart Houston officially opened the offices, congratulating the co-operative on its progress since its birth 35 years ago.

Thames Valley Cambac’s mid-90s expansion into the south-west, followed by its buying Porcofram and Allied Livestock Marketing, meant it had a value proposition for both producers and processors, said chairman Charlie Allen.

Back to Top

IGD’s Food Industry Awards 2010 are now open for entry and the search is on for the industry’s most outstanding companies, people, projects and initiatives!

Entry is FREE and couldn’t be easier. Simply choose the categories you wish to enter, then download and complete the relevant entry form.

The prestigious award ceremony takes place in London on 12 October. Winners and runners-up will receive valuable press coverage and industry recognition. So what have you got to lose? Find out more here.

Back to Top

The ABN Innovation Award is a unique opportunity for the next generation to demonstrate their potential contribution to the UK’s pig and poultry supply chain.

Under a Marketing theme, entrants from both outside and inside the industry are encouraged to present creative and innovative ideas that will add value across the sector.

The prize of £1,000 cash will be decided and presented at the industry’s leading business event, The British Pig & Poultry Fair 2010.

Finalists will also receive an invitation to the ABN Industry Dinner on the first evening of the Fair.

The ABN partnership with The British Pig & Poultry Fair is about finding answers to the big industry issues and creating positive change across the industry by adopting a ‘whole supply chain’ approach. This competition is one part of that process.

For more information, click here.

Back to Top

International News:

Smithfield on the Up

The future looks brighter for Smithfield Foods in 2011 if hog production margins continue to improve, Wall Street analysts said in the wake of the company’s third-quarter earnings report.

Smithfield on Thursday posted its first quarterly profit since 2008 as its long suffering hog production unit narrowed its losses due to lower costs and higher sales prices. Chief Executive Larry Pope declared the hog production cycle had turned. The company’s packaged meat business exceeded expectations.

Back to Top

The Parliament Agri Committee has voted on a draft resolution on the European Commission action plan for animal welfare for 2006-2010.

Broadly speaking, the Committee expressed its satisfaction regarding the implementation of the measures contained in the current action plan and acknowledges that good work has been done to develop alternatives to animal testing in order to assign the highest priority to animal welfare.  However, MEPs deplore that little has been done with regard to animal transport and the associated issue of developing a satellite system to monitor such transport. Another matter of particular concern is that many pig farmers in Europe are violating the provisions of Directive 2008/120/EC laying down minimum standards for the protection of pigs.

The agriculture Committee has called on the Commission to propose without delay an action plan for 2011-2015, based on the results of the previous one, with adequate resources to implement it.

To put it simply, according to the draft report, the new action plan should focus on the following issues:

1. a general European animal welfare law

2. a European centre for animal welfare and animal health

3. better enforcement of existing legislation

4. the link between animal health and public health5. indicators and new techniques

The draft report is available by clicking here.

Back to Top

The Glon group based in Brittany (Pontivy) and chaired by Alain Glon just purchased the majority of the Rungis based pig meat specialist Porcgros according to the latest Export Bulletin.

This plant will now trade 5 000 carcasses per week coming from the slaughtering company of the group Abera, also located in Brittany at Saint Brice en Coglès.

Now the pig meat section of the Glon group is in position to supply wholesalers and processors in the Paris region. Abera slaughters over 1 million pigs per year, half of them are cut on the site.

To read the Export Bulletin, click here.

Back to Top

Germany’s association of farming cooperatives has said it was optimistic the European Union would relax its ban on unapproved imports of tiny traces of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Without any such measure, EU imports of soybeans and soymeal could be disrupted once again in autumn 2010, said Manfred Nuessel, president of cooperatives association DRV.

Millions of tonnes of EU soy imports were delayed in autumn 2009 as some shipments contained tiny traces of GMO grains not yet approved for EU import. This mostly involved dust from ships and trucks which had previously carried consignments of GMO crops the EU had not yet approved. The EU has indicated it will examine the issue in coming weeks.

Back to Top

---

Whale Meal in Pig Feed?

Conservationists today claimed whale meat could be ending up as animal feed for pigs and salmon in Denmark after data showed Iceland was exporting whale products to the EU country.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw) said information from the official Icelandic statistics body showed recent exports of whale products to Denmark and Latvia – illegal under EU law.

The international trade in whales is also banned by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).

The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society said exports of "whale meal", a potential replacement for meat and bone meal for pigs, could be fed to animals used to produce Danish bacon.

Back to Top

---

International Prices

For the latest International Prices, click here.

Back to Top

In response to steeply falling pork prices in China, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce has said the government "will take measures according to changes in the markets to ensure [pork] prices remain basically stable," a Bloomberg report said.

Pork prices in that country have dropped 9 percent since January, Bloomberg quoted the spokesman as saying. Farmers are losing money and culling some hogs, exacerbating the price issue. The government wants to make sure that a sustained price slide does not destabilize the hog farming industry.

Back to Top

The are again potential problems with the import of feed if the EU upholds its policy of ‘zero tolerance’ for unapproved genetically modified (GM) plants.

"This spring, new genetically modified plants will be sown in North and South America. It’s unlikely that they will be approved for import to the EU by harvest time in October,” said Klaus-Dieter Schumacher in a statement to the news agency Reuters as speaker for EU Grain and Oilseeds traders’ association (Coceral).

“This may lead to a similarly difficult situation to the past autumn.” According to Mr Schumacher, a solution to the problem is “more urgent than ever.”

John Dalli, EU Commissioner for Consumer Protection has announced his intention within weeks to propose solutions for the problem of minimal GM admixtures. It is expected that the Commission will issue ‘technical guidelines’ with regard, for example, to standardised analysis procedures and sampling for GM organisms (GMO).

Such a technical solution appears more readily realisable than protracted and politically controversial changes in the existing European regulations for gene technology.

Back to Top