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HUGE FEED RISES: Cameron Naughton says times are rocky for pig farmers
THE recent rise in prices for pork meat could paradoxically spell the end for more of Wiltshire pig farmers.
Although there were once more pigs than people in Wiltshire, it is feared that some of the remaining ten pig producers in the county could soon go out of business.
Cameron Naughton, who farms at Bishops Cannings, near Devizes, said that, although the recent 15 per cent rise in the wholesale price of pork means that he can now cover his costs, some of his colleagues might see it as a way of paying off their debts and getting out.
He said: "Consumers have seen prices in the shops rise by 30 per cent, but farm gate prices have only gone up by 15 per cent.
"The only reason that wholesale prices have risen is because so many producers have been driven out of business.
"It is a question of supply and demand and even the European producers, who always undercut us, are going out of business."
Pig farmers have had to put up with huge rises in the cost of feed for their animals for nine months. The price of soya has shot up from £168 a tonne last year to £320 a tonne now.
Mr Naughton said: "If the supermarkets had got the message nine months ago it could have been so different.
"But they insisted on keeping their prices down, so we have had to bear the loss.
"The number of breeding sows has fallen from 550,000 nationally to about 420,000 and I firmly believe we will see the number fall even further.
"When you get to that stage, you begin to see the loss of the industry's infrastructure, such as the closure of feed suppliers and abattoirs. You will never get that back.
"I have been rearing pigs for 25 years and this is the worst I have known it.
"We will probably survive because we are reasonably efficient and we grow our own cereals to feed the pigs. Farmers who have to buy in feed could very well go to the wall."
The last Wiltshire producer of Wiltshire cured ham is Roger Keen at Sandridge Farm in Bromham.
He was scathing about the Government's last-minute attempts to avert the worst effects of global rises in the price of fuel and farm produce.
"I was looking at the prices we were getting for our pork in 1986. It was £1.08 per kilo.
"Last Christmas British pork producers were getting £1.10.
"Now the price is going up it is too little, too late. The damage to the industry has already been caused."