Record year for Dutch bacon imports

By Farmers Weekly staff

DUTCH bacon suppliers achieved a new record for shipments to the UK in 1999, according to latest information from the Livestock Products Board.

Provisional data put the trade at 120,000t, topping the previous year by 6000t.

Of this total, 106,000t was branded Royal Crest bacon, on a par with 1998 shipments.

“Clearly there has been some growth in the non-Crest sector,” says Robert Smith, managing director of the Dutch Meat Board in the UK.

But the biggest factor behind the strong Dutch performance has been the strength of the Pound.

Home-produced bacon now only accounts for about half of the market.