BPEX Weekly: April 30 2010

Visit us at Pig Fair

BPEX marketing will have information on the totally integrated marketing campaign – Love Summer Love Pork, which includes:

• Foodservice Summer Activity – Score with Pork
• Girls Guide to Grilling – BBQ Activity
• Campaign to rename Picnics – ‘Pignics’

A plasma screen will have live demonstrations of the Lovepork and BPEX Websites showcasing

• the range of pork cuts information and variety of recipes on the Lovepork site
• along with the indepth and industry wide information available from the BPEX site

There will also be a first viewing of the new Porkprovenance website which is supporting the Code of Practice for Clearer Labelling of Pork and Pork Products

The stand, Stand 48, Hall 2, offers a range of marketing leaflets, recipe books and guides which will be available to take away or order.

Marketing News

Bacon Chart Launched

Aimed at college lecturers, the chart shows the types of cuts available for curing.  Launched on 27th April at Westminster College where they already make their own bacon and gammon, it aids the teaching of students on how to cure pork. A curing guide for other college lecturers will be produced in due course to aid them in their lectures.

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Staff and year 11 pupils at a Lancaster school turned their hands to sausage-making with great success. Ripley St Thomas Church of England High School, which already raises its own livestock, took the next step in the supply chain and learnt to make sausages. Pleased with their results, they entered two sausages into a local BPEX evaluation event for butchers in the North West and were astounded to receive two gold awards. After attending a sausage-making masterclass with ten pupils at Westgate Frozen Foods, school chef Warren Sharples came up with two varieties.

As well as triumphing in the product evaluation event, Ripley School is also in the final stages of a national competition as part of the Real Food Festival 7-10 May 2010. Having produced a film about their pigs on the farm and the procedures involved in sausage making, the school is eagerly awaiting the grand final, which takes place in Earls Court in May.  To see the film click here.

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Euro-politicians had a real treat on Wednesday when they were served a breakfast of British bacon, eggs and sausages at the European Parliament in Brussels.

The British breakfast bonanza was organised by the National Pig Association and the NFU in Brussels to highlight at EU level the high animal welfare standards achieved by British pig farmers.

UK company Dalehead Foods was the proud provider for the event. Dalehead’s meat from two of Britain’s biggest pork producing regions, East Anglia and the East Midlands, fed MEPs, EU Commission officials and interest groups during a discussion about why British pig farmers are at the forefront of animal welfare in farming.

Stewart Houston, NPA Chairman, said “Any UK pig farmer knows that high standards of animal welfare, animal transport and hygiene are an important part of running their businesses every day. We were in Brussels to guide EU policy makers in making the right regulatory choices, keeping in mind the need for economic stability in the industry.

“Taking over the kitchens at the European Parliament was not easy. We have to thank UK MEP Vicky Ford and colleagues from the East Anglia and East Midlands regions for being so dedicated to the cause and making it possible to serve such a delicious, animal welfare friendly breakfast to their EU colleagues”.

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Knowledge Transfer

Tip of the Week: Weeds

As the weather improves plants start to grow and unfortunately that includes weeds. Now is the time to invest in a knapsack sprayer and get on top of weed growth around pig buildings and the surrounding areas.

This should ensure the site remains tidy throughout the summer and also help in the control of vermin and disease, with fewer places for animals to hide around the buildings.

Don’t forget to check the legislative requirements relating to the safe use of pesticides and knapsack spraying, you may be required to send a member of staff on a training course – check out your local agricultural college for further information.

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The Environment Agency has written to known suppliers to a poultry enterprise which recently received a substantial fine for not having and EPR (IPPC) Permit warning them of possible consequences and the risk of their companies being subsequently prosecuted.

Businesses supplying or working for farms of a scale requiring an environmental permit should ensure that the farm has a valid permit in place.

The EA warn: knowingly causing or knowingly permitting the operation of a regulated facility in contravention of regulation 12 (1) (a) of the Environmental Permitting Regulations is an offence under Regulation 38 of the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2010.

A person who commits an offence under this provision may be liable to up to 12 months imprisonment and/or a £50,000 fine on summary conviction. Checks can be made by calling the EA permitting support centre via the national customer contact centre on 08708 506 506.

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IPPC Revised Applications

In response to customer feedback and work with organisations including BPEX, the Environment Agency has issued simpler revised application forms and guidance for making applications for new permits and variations. These are available on their website.

A step by step guide from BPEX and the NPA will be available at the British Pig and Poultry Fair in May.

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Anaerobic digestion plants have to be registered with the Environment Agency which now has three different levels of regulatory approval, depending upon the plant output capacity and feedstock used.

Farm-only digesters with an aggregated net rated thermal input of less than 400 kW can benefit by only needing to register a ”Waste Exemption’. 

A new Standard Permit is available where the net aggregated thermal input is below 300 MW, provided it meets a number of criteria placing it in a lower risk category. More information can be found here.

Bespoke permits apply to plants not meeting the criteria for an Exemption of Standard permit. 

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National News:

Biotech Crop Study

Two new studies show biotech crops continue to deliver significant global, economic and environmental benefits and make important contributions to global food production, food security and lower real prices for food and feed crops

“Since 1996, biotech crop adoption has contributed to reducing the release of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, decreased pesticide spraying, significantly boosted farmers’ incomes and resulted in lower real world prices for corn, canola, soybeans and the main derivatives of these crops,” said Graham Brookes, director of PG Economics, co-author of the reports.

“The technology has also made important contributions to increasing crop yields, reducing production risks, improving productivity and raising global production of key crops.

"The combination of economic and environmental benefit delivery is therefore making a valuable contribution to improving the sustainability of global agriculture and affordability of food, with these benefits and improvements being greatest in developing countries”

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Report on Pig Production

Rural Business Research (RBR) has added a report to its dedicated website under the “publications” tab, drawn from the latest results from Farm Business Survey (FBS) data.
The report, Pig Production in England shows the changing fortunes of producers in this sector. Highlights include:
• Profitability of pig farming has improved considerably from 2007/08 to 2008/09
• Variation in performance continues – 18% of pig farms returning a negative Farm Business Income (FBI)
Mervyn Lewis, RBR at Askham Bryan College said: "Increased prices in 2009 and lower feed costs should bring some stability to the sector after a sustained period of losses for much of the last decade.”
To see the report, click here.

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A special edition of NPA News Digest will be available on the NPA stand at Pig Fair.

Produced by NPA and BPEX, it is targeted at pig-keepers who expect to be applying for an IPPC permit this year.

Containing practical advice from Nigel Penlington of BPEX, Barney Kay of NPA, and Lizzie Press of BQP, it guides would-be members of the “IPPC Club” through the process of gathering all the necessary paperwork together and then completing the forms.

Joining IPPC is not a process to be undertaken lightly, caution the authors — and once you are in the club, you will be bound by its exacting rules.

A further special edition of News Digest will be published in a few weeks, offering step-by-step help to IPPC permit-holders who expect to be applying for a permit variation this year.

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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.

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Peppa Pig withdrawn from Labour party election event

The company which licenses children’s TV character Peppa Pig has withdrawn her from a Labour party election event.

The pre-school character was due to visit a children’s centre later as part of Labour’s launch of their manifesto for families.

But E1 Entertainment said it had agreed the character should not attend the event to avoid any controversy.

The British cartoon series, which follows the pig, her family and friends, is shown in 180 countries.

Its five-year-old central character helps to promote the government-funded Sure Start children’s centres.

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International News:

Russian Import Cuts

The rate at which Russia is cutting imports of pork is faster than the country is upping production in its quest for self-sufficiency, USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service said.

An attaché report posted late last week said Russian pork production in 2010 will increase only 1.1 percent to 2.225 million tonnes while imports will drop 4.1 percent to 810,000 tonnes.

"Attaining self-sufficiency through import substitution is the goal of the [Russian Federation], but pork production failed to offset the reduced quota in 2009, driving prices slightly higher and consumption lower," researchers wrote in the report.

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Delay for EU Stalls Ban?

Pressure is building on the continent for a delay in implementing the 2013 partial stalls ban, because so many pig-producers cannot find the money to convert to loose-housing.

A recent vote in a committee meeting at farmers union Copa-Cogeca found 16 in favour of pressing Brussels for a derogation and only one — Denmark — in favour of the partial ban going ahead as planned in January 2013.

But just because so many countries want a derogation, it doesn’t mean it is going to happen, says NPA chairman Stewart Houston, who was unable to attend the Copa Cogeca meeting.

At a meeting of the Brussels advisory group on pigmeat, he heard from the Brussels department of health and consumer affairs that a derogation is unlikely to be agreed, because it would undermine the credibility of the European Commission.

If continental pig producers were set on keeping sow stalls they would have to campaign, through the council of ministers, for a change in the law and that would take two to three years, suggested the department of health and consumer affairs.

But despite this reassurance, Stewart Houston remains concerned that Brussels might yet cave in to demands for a derogation.

If they did, it would leave British pig producers, who have invested heavily in loose-housing, at a continuing disadvantage.

Like the Danes, the Dutch and the Swedes he is adamant the European partial ban should go ahead in January 2013, as planned.

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Statistics Canada reported the April 1 Canadian breeding hog inventory at 1.3 million head, a 6 percent decline from a year ago and a 2 percent decline from the previous quarter, which one analyst characterized as the fewest breeding hogs in at least a decade.

Canadian inventory of all hogs and pigs on April 1, at 11.6 million head, was down 2 percent from a year ago and down 10 percent from two years ago. Market hog inventory, at 10.3 million head, was down 2 percent from last year and down 2 percent from last quarter. The pig crop, at 7.1 million head, was down 5 percent from 2009 and down 11 percent from 2008. Sows farrowed during this period totalled 715,600 head, down 5 percent from last year and down 11 percent from 2008.

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Five years ago, EFSA gave a positive opinion for the use of the enzyme preparation of thrombin and fibrogen, obtained from blood plasma.

The preparation can be used to connect separate pieces of reclaimed meat together, so that they appear to be one large slab (which explains why the substance is generally known as ‘meat glue’).

However, for this substance to be used in the EU, it has to be approved by the European Commission and added to the positive list of additives in annex IV of directive 95/2/EC on food additives. Then the Parliament has a two month window to veto this if it sees fit. This veto right expires on May 30.
Swedish MEP Åsa Westlund raised an objection in the Parliament’s Envi committee saying this practice could mislead consumers and 31 committee members voted in favour of the objection. Twenty one members voted against, and there were no abstentions.
Parliament as a whole is  to vote on the objection in Strasbourg on 17-20 May.
If a majority of MEPs (369+) back the Environment Committee, the authorisation will be vetoed. The deadline for Parliament to veto the proposal is 30 May. If there is no veto, MEPs will in effect give a green light for bovine and/or porcine thrombin to be listed in Annex IV of Directive 95/2/EC, which authorises "additives other than authorised colours and sweeteners".

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International Prices

For the latest international prices, click here.

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