Livestock Farmer Focus: Andrew Freemantle has been nominated for an award

Since June 2009, we have been supplying a wholesaler in Cornwall with sausages, burgers and bacon, which it in turn supplies to Morrisons.

With a raft of other regional products, the margins were slim, but it was a simple transaction. I sold my pigs to a processor, then bought back exactly what was ordered, made from Kenniford Pork and it was then delivered and distributed.

It gave us the opportunity to get the Kenniford name out in the region, and we have received some letters from customers saying how nice the sausages were. However, with the prices for every item set in January 2009, without a change since, I approached the wholesalers for a price rise on the back of rising feed prices last week. I got my answer today and they have dropped me with one week’s notice, citing poor packaging and product quality and giving me no chance to address these issues.

It’s a good job I had not invested in any processing machinery or staff to make these products as I would have been right out on a limb. But this just highlights the one big advantage of being a primary producer as well as a processor, as soon as I got the news I rang my marketing group and booked the extra pigs (roughly four a week) in with them, which means no great loss to us. However, it is a shame not to be given the chance to build on the sales we had already achieved,

On a more positive note, I recently showed some food writers from the BBC around our farm as we have been nominated for the Best British Takeaway Award for our hog roast dinners served at Mole Valley. We will find out on the 24 November, so fingers crossed.