Making profits from niche markets takes time
SELLING A NICHE product direct to the consumer has turned a pet pig into a hobby that pays for builder Philip Brown.
But further expansion is limited by the niche he is in because customers want traditional bacon, joints and particularly sausages from his Gloucester Old Spots, a rare breed with only 700 sows in Britain.
Mr Brown and his wife Glynnis have built up to 12 sows and three boars on their 7ha (18-acre) smallholding near Diss in Norfolk. They could increase to 24 sows, but with stock fetching high prices, numbers won”t be rising overnight, he says. “And breeding them ourselves means a long lead-time.
“We used to sell breeding stock, but in the past year everything from the two litters a pig – averaging eight pigs a litter – has gone into meat. We kill males at 6-7 months getting a 150lb carcass. Females are run on and killed according to demand, so are slightly bigger.”
Supplying friends and family with pigmeat to attending two farmers” markets a month, has led Mr Brown to invest in his own cutting plant. He employs a butcher and packer to cut pigs, sheep and cattle for other smallholders.
“It’s hard to find a local butcher to do just four pigs, packed and ready on a Friday for the Saturday market. This way we can have what we want and when. Although the butchery does not cover its costs, we still make money out of the smallholding.”
Demand for Old Spot meat has risen, he says, because the breed has more fat and flavour than modern commercial breeds. It is, therefore, popular with older people. Retailing the meat from six pigs at two farmers” markets a month, he says they sell 90% of it, while 75% of custom is repeat business.
Yet developing the niche further through organic certification is too expensive, despite an extensive management system – no teeth, tail clipping or castration, and worming is based on rotating paddocks.
“Most consumers are more interested in how we look after our pigs rather than us being officially organic,” he adds.
Shirley Macmillan