Pig producers face new threat from Europe

Fears are growing that British pig producers are next in line to be unfairly penalised by the willingness of other countries to flout animal welfare rules.

Farm leaders will travel to Brussels next week amid increasing concern that other European Union countries will fail to meet a ban on sows kept in stalls, due to come into force across all member states next year.

Already illegal in the UK, Sweden and Luxembourg, sow stalls will be banned across the European Union from January 2013 – except for the first four weeks of gestation. Yet many countries abroad show little sign of abandoning them.

Only 12 out of 27 EU member states are on course to meet the 2013 ban, Farmers Weekly has learned. Countries likely to miss the deadline include France and Spain – two of Europe’s biggest pig producers.

British farmers have long campaigned against imports of pigmeat produced under conditions that are illegal in the UK. Now they face the prospect of cut-price European pigmeat produced under conditions illegal across Europe.

It threatens a farce similar to the situation that has seen millions of eggs imported into the UK from European laying hens in smaller battery cages – despite an EU directive banning the production method earlier this year.

A European Commission spokesman said the way the directive was drafted made it impossible for Brussels to take legal action before ban came into effect on 1 January 2013. Until then, no law was being broken, he added.

The spokesman said: “We know for sure that a certain number of countries won’t comply on time and that is a shame. But we aren’t sitting back and we don’t want ‘Laying Hens Mark Two’. We are continuing to put pressure on member states.”

Meanwhile, calls are mounting for the commission to officially name and shame the countries most likely to miss the deadline. The issue is likely to be discussed at a stakeholders’ meeting in Brussels on Monday (19 March).

The meeting aims to raise awareness of the situation by bringing together farming representatives, animal welfare campaigners and policy-makers, said Katy Lee, assistant director of the NFU’s Brussels office.

She added: “We absolutely need to put pressure on the European Commission to take its own animal welfare rules seriously and not to undermine the efforts of British producers who invest time and money to abide by them.”