Marketing News
Sausage of Year Winner
A traditional ‘Thick Pork Sausage’ has been voted ‘Foodservice P ork Sausage of the Year 2009’ in what was a hotly contested competition. The accolade was awarded to Hinchliffes Butchers from Huddersfield, whose sausage beat 14 others to the title in the live final held at London’s Butchers Hall last week. The 15 sausages had already been selected as first, second and third place in each of the competition’s five categories from a total of over 230 entries, but any of the sausages in the final was eligible to win the overall winner’s title. For more information, click here.
Sign up and show your support for clearer labelling by clicking here.
The clearer labelling video produced for consumers to understand about how to read an on-pack label is now live on the LovePork website. Labels can be misleading and the video gives simple and clear advice on what the different elements mean.
Sausage Week Gathers Pace
www.lovepork.co.uk website homepage has been taken over by British Sausage Week.
With links to the campaign page, where there are opportunities to view the many events happening throughout the week as well as links to it’s BSW Facebook page along with Paul and Debbies Twitter pages.
Listen to Paul and Debbie’s interview by clicking here.
Or keep up with their adventures here.
Launch day – November 2 – will see a variety of BBC radio stations including morning shows such as Wake up to Wogan and drive time shows like Chris Evans, plus the major London stations receive sausage sarnies for the presenters. Keep checking the website www.britishsausageweek.com for up to date info.
Banger Award Winner
You might be waiting to see who is the next Leona Lewis or Alexandra Burke on the X Factor, or who will triumph as king or queen of the dance floor on Strictly Come Dancing; but the award that all the stars are desperate to get their hands on are the much acclaimed British Sausage Week Banger Awards! Now in their 12th year, some of Britain’s greatest sausage lovers were recognised today when the British Sausage Appreciation Society unveiled its list of Celebrity Banger Award Winners in celebration of this years’ British Sausage Week, which runs from the 2nd to 8th November 2009. To find out who is getting a treasured award click here.
Pork Campaign Launched
Regional food group Produced in Kent has launched a pork campaign to bring some November cheer to the county’s consumers. The campaign will kick off to coincide with British Sausage Week (2-6 November) and will run for the whole month. Consumers will have the chance to win a ‘Crackling Christmas Box’ of pork in time for Christmas, which will include the finest Kentish pork joint, chops and sausages for a family of four.
An ethically-minded Northern Ireland food company has won a contract to supply sausages to Waitrose stores across the UK. The Good Little Company said that it is "over the moon" that Waitrose is now listing its Good Little Sausages and Great Big Sausages, made from 85% outdoor-bred British pork and which are reduced-fat and gluten-free. The Good Little Company donates 5p from the sale of every pack of its sausages to Christian Aid. This money helps families in developing countries to grow their own crops, thus providing one person in a developing country with at least one staple meal every day for two weeks. For more information, click here.
Baxter Storey has become the first British contract caterer to source all of its meat from the UK. But reorganising the supply chain to become more eco-friendly has not been easy. Rosalind Mullen reports. Last month, BaxterStorey finally clinched a deal to source British Red Tractor Farm Assured bacon from the UK, marking the last hurdle in the contract caterer’s mission to buy all its meat from British farmers.
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Knowledge Transfer
Lorry Wash Project
Abattoir lorry washes are the focus of a new initiative to decrease the risk of disease transmission within the pig industry.
The Pig Task Force Committee, chaired by Defra minister Jim Fitzpatrick, has a sub-group focused on pig health issues and it has identified abattoir lorry washes as a significant factor for the industry.
The task force is proposing to survey abattoir lorry washing facilities by issuing a simple assessment sheet to wash users. This information will be collated and fed back to both the abattoirs and the task force to identify weaknesses in the industry to be addressed.
Plus there will be £50 up for grabs as additional incentive: all lorry wash users who submit contact details with their assessment sheet will be entered into a draw for the cash.
Feedback on this proposal is welcomed and more information will be circulated to hauliers and marketing groups shortly. If you have any queries please contact Richard Lister [email protected].
The University of Minnesota has made a number of the presentations from the 2009 Allen D. Leman Swine Conference available online. Al Leman DVM was committed to understanding and defining the association of disease and production in pigs and the annual conference named after him focuses on putting research into practice. Leman was committed to the development of new production and management technologies for the pig industry. Recognising that information and its management were revolutionising food animal production Leman recruited Tom Stein to join the Swine Group at the University of Minnesota and Tom’s keynote Hanson Lecture ‘Pork production information systems and data analysis — Back to the future’ is one of the presentations available online. To see the presentations, click here.
Tip of the Week – Environmental Permitting
Applications take time to process, but if you want to make sure yours goes through as quickly as possible, don’t tick the confidentiality box! If you tick this box your application will have to go through an alternative route and take much longer to process, meaning you will have to wait far longer to receive your permit.
Waste Exemption Consultation
A joint Defra and Welsh Assembly Government consultation invites your views on the structure and content of draft environmental permitting guidance for exempt waste operations.
This guidance has been drafted as part of the review of waste exemptions from environmental permitting being undertaken by Defra, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Environment Agency. The aim of the review is to provide a more risk based and proportionate approach to the regulation of waste recovery and disposal operations, complementing the new environmental permitting regime. The full document can be viewed here. The consultation closes on 5 January 2010.
Cost of Production Report
The latest in a series of annual reports examining the relative costs of pig meat production up to farmgate level in selected EU countries will be available shortly.
Pig Cost of Production in Selected Countries points out further improvements in technical efficiency have helped to trim production costs in Britain. One positive factor in 2008 was the success of the BPEX program to distribute the PCV2 vaccine, which is used to control PMWS, to English pig producers. Sow productivity, post-weaning mortality and growth rates improved in 2008 and this is likely to have been due in no small part to PCV2. Further gains are being seen in 2009.
More recently, 2009 has seen a further weakening in sterling, which together with declines in production, has pushed pig prices to record levels. At the same time, feed prices have continued to move lower. Consequently, profit margins this autumn have been the highest for over ten years.
- Great Britain continued to show improvements in post-weaning mortality, down from 7.0 per cent to 5.6 per cent. By far the most marked improvement in post-weaning mortality in recent years has occurred in Great Britain Between 2004, when the mortality rate peaked, and 2008 mortality declined by 51 per cent in Great Britain compared with nine per cent in the EU as a whole.
- The average number of pigs finished/sow in Great Britain increased for the fifth consecutive year in 2008. At 20.9 pigs/sow, average performance was 0.7 pigs (4%) higher than in 2007 and 2.0 pigs (11%) higher than in 2004. This was the highest annual improvement recorded for at least 15 years.
The report is free to English pig levy payers. If you would like a copy, email [email protected].
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National News:
Pig Market Trends
The latest issue of Pig Market Trends has just been published including forecasts of UK pig meat supplies, based on recent June 2009 census data. Also average and top third pig performance results are available. If anybody would like a copy they should contact Jacqui Emery on 0247 669 8766
Top Award for Sandra Edwards
Prof Sandra Edwards is this year’s winner of the prestigious David Black Award for her valuable and longstanding work for the pig industry.
Sandra, was appointed to the Chair of Agriculture at the University of Newcastle in 2000.
She said: “I am both surprised and honoured to receive the David Black Award. It has been a real pleasure to work with an industry which has one of the most integrated and constructive sets of people around.
“The way they work together with government, researchers and people outside the industry to achieve common goals is an example to all.”
Chairman of the judges Mick Sloyan said: “Sandra has made a long-standing and extremely valuable contribution to the pig industry. A sustainable future for the industry is underpinned by relevant research which will help us regain our competitiveness.
“She has been a leader in research on welfare and it is vital we have scientific input into the welfare debate rather than emotional reaction.”
Kevin Roberts Leaves AHDB
Kevin Roberts, Chief Executive of AHDB, will be leaving at the end  of this financial year to take up the position of Director General of the NFU.
The AHDB Board appointed Kevin to oversee the delivery of the formation and restructuring of AHDB.
The huge programme of change that Kevin has successfully implemented under the Board’s direction is well on its way to being completed. And although slightly sooner than originally envisaged, it is a logical time for a new chief executive to be found to take AHDB forward in its new role.
The Board has agreed to implement a planned CEO recruitment process and this will get underway within the next few days. Kevin remains in post to allow time to find a successor.
The BPHS dates for the weekend commencing November 9 are:
Abattoir |
Assessment date |
Tulip Spalding |
Wednesday 11 November |
Cranswick |
Wednesday 11 November |
F A Gill |
Thursday 12 November |
G Wood and Sons |
Thursday 12 November |
Cranswick Norfolk (formerly Bowes) |
Friday 13 November |
Tulip Ashton |
Friday 13 November |
Nuffield Scholarships Available
People with a passion for the pig industry have a unique opportunity to study and travel as BPEX and Merial Animal Health are jointly sponsoring a Nuffield Scholarship award.
The Nuffield Farming Scholarships Trust (NFST) is seeking applications from people aged between 22 and 45, who are convinced there is an exciting future in farming, food and rural industries.
The deadline for applications is 15th November 2009. Current pig industry scholar Richard Hooper is encouraging anyone who is passionate about their work to apply for a Scholarship now.
He said: “When my scholarship was awarded I was told I could look forward to a challenging and enjoyable experience that would open up a lifetime of new opportunities – so far so good
The NFST awards around 20 Scholarships each year, providing travel and subsistence costs for an eight-week period, in return for a written paper and presentation of study findings at its Winter Conference.
An application form for a 2010 Scholarship can be downloaded from the Nuffield website at www.nuffieldscholar.org. Individuals interested in applying who would like to find out more can contact: John Stones, NFST, on 01858 555544 or email [email protected] or Richard Hooper on 07967 301949 or email [email protected].
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International News:
Flu Conference
A conference opened in Brussels today (Fri) on "Influenza at the interface between humans and animals."
About 400 specialists in public and animal health were due to participate. High level speakers from the European Commission and international organisations, such as the World Health Organisation, the World Organisation for Animal Health and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, were expected to highlight the need for cross cutting policy co-operation across borders in order to minimise the spread of the H1N1 virus in both the human and animal populations over the coming months.
Risk assessment strategies, research needs and the use of vaccines are some of the areas the participants to be addressed.
More information can be found by clicking here.
African Swine Fever Hits
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has been tracking African Swine Fever in the Caucasus for several years.
ASF is believed to have entered into the Caucasus through the Black Sea port of Poti, Georgia.
ASF has now jumped 2,000 km from southern Russia to St Petersburg in north-western Russia. The latest outbreak was found near the Baltic city on October 20. The danger is that ASF – which can not be transmitted to humans – could spread to other regions including the European Union countries, Eastern Europe, the Black Sea basin countries and – in the worst case scenario – central Asia and even China, which has the largest pig population in the world.
In the light of this outbreak, FAO is advising countries to be vigilant and roll out their early detection and response plans.
Simultaneously since there is currently no vaccine against ASF (The disease is usually eradicated by the culling of infected animals and strict movement control). FAO calls therefore for a renewed effort by laboratories in the US, Europe and the Russian Federation to develop an effective vaccine against ASF.
Russian Pigs Under Threat
Due to the spread of the African Swine Fever (ASF), throughout the territory of Russia, the Russian Ministry of Agriculture is considering the possibility of transferring pig farms to closed operation mode.
This isin order to prevent further fever spread in the territory of the country which can result in loss of 1 million pigs – equivalent to 50,000 tonnes of meat.
“In order to resolve this problem we will have to transfer all hog farmsto the closed type of production," said the Russian minister of agriculture earlier this week.
According to the official, the direct economic losses from ASF could reach 25-30 billion rubles (€600 million). Further spread of the disease can destroy the country’s pig production, and the whole programme of livestock development.
"New outbreaks of the disease can arise where there is no proper veterinary protection of pig farms and where farm management violates the veterinary and sanitary regulations,” Skrynnik added.
For the latest EU prices, please click here.
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Export Report
The EU’s trade minister has just signed a free trade agreement with South Korea. It offers many important
opportunities for agricultural exports. The new agreement abolishes all trade obstacles between
the EU and South Korea, and it is expected that the trade between the two areas will increase by
20 billion Euro annually. To read the full report, please click here.
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