Malton Bacon threatens pig price system

03 June 1998

Malton Bacon threatens pig price system

BRITAINS biggest bacon group, Malton Bacon, is to slash the price it pays for pigs and terminate an unspecified number of buying contracts with its farmers.

The cost-cutting measure – expected to save the company at least £5 million a year – threatens to undermine the industry-wide system of deadweight payments based on independently recorded prices. It also casts serious doubts over whether UK producers can compete with cheap foreign pigmeat imports on welfare issues, rather than on price.