£4m campaign to promote pork hits the road

PIG farmers in Yorkshire are taking their battle to promote British pork to the streets as part of a £4m advertising campaign.

Producers who have sufficient roadside sites to host billboards and the like are being encouraged to be part of the drive to increase the price of British pork.

The average pig producer needs 150p a kilo to break-even through to harvest 2011 and beyond. However, many producers are still failing to secure this. This comes as the industry tries to simultaneously battle against higher feed prices.

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Farming organisations now want to promote British pork on every trunk road in England.

A spokesman for the National Pig Association said: "Please help us tick off the major roads of Britain by volunteering to display a 10ft by 3ft PVC banner on your land. If we get 30 volunteers it will be worth proceeding with the campaign."

Once a sufficient level of producers offer their help, there will be two strands to the campaign.

NPA will fund 'Buy British' messages while BPEX – which is more restricted in what it can pay for because it is a parafiscal body – will pay for Red Tractor banners.

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The industry is buoyed by the fact that recent customer research has shown that consumers are more eager than ever to support British pig farmers, despite the continued fall out from the recession.

Some 78 per cent of consumers said they would be prepared to pay more for higher welfare pork, while 83 per cent of shoppers said they were prepared to do a little more to help farmers through the crisis.

"The aim of this banner campaign is to tie in our positive sales messages with the Red Tractor on supermarket packs.

"By increasing demand for British pork and pork products at retail, we can make a real contribution to the industry's survivability between now and harvest 2011," a spokesman said.

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The NPA is now looking for suggestions for slogans, as well as volunteers who will display the banners.

The news comes in the same week it was suggested total farming income for 2010 could fall by as much as 13 per cent. Income from farming for 2009 was also adjusted downwards to 3.6bn, down 19 per cent on 2008.

NFU senior economics adviser Philip Bicknell said: "Given the unfavourable SPS exchange rate compared to 2009, we already knew that the value of SPS payments in 2010 would be lower, and that Defra's Aggregate Agricultural Accounts would reflect this. On the output side, we've seen big increases in cereal prices through the second half of 2010 and lamb prices have continued to grow year-on-year. Of course, not all sectors have seen increasing output while higher cereal prices will also be reflected in higher feed costs. Added to higher fertiliser and energy prices, many farm businesses will see their bottom line impacted by higher input prices this year.

"As in years gone by, I'd anticipate revisions to Defra's initial estimate, particularly given that the second half of 2010 has again been characterised by market volatility."