NFU SCOTLAND is carrying out a pork shelf watch over this week (27 November to 5 December) to gain a clear snapshot of which supermarkets are strongly supporting our pig farmers at this extremely challenging time for the industry.
All pig farmers are experiencing particularly difficult times just now. There is a perfect storm of problems affecting throughput in the processing sector, low staffing levels throughout the whole chain, high input costs on farms, poor prices globally and a lack of equivalent controls and checks on EU product coming into the market.
In the next week, NFU Scotland is calling on members to visit local supermarkets to record what pork is available on the fresh meat shelves, whilst complying with all Covid-19 guidance. The results can be recorded at: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/KJBFQSF
NFU Scotland’s Pigs Policy Manager Penny Middleton said: “Retailers have been keen to express their support for the sector with pledges not to undercut the market with cheap imports and NFUS wants members to help check that retailers are indeed standing by their word.
“We are calling on members to help carry out a shelf watch between 27 November to 5 December and capture a snapshot of what is really on the shelves, where it comes from and what deals are on offer.
“The plan is to keep things as simple as possible, asking members to do as many of their local retailers as they can manage, but even one will be a help! We have put together a survey at Survey Monkey so you can easily complete it on your phone in the store.
“If you are less happy with technology, or broadband/mobile reception in store are not an option, then we ask members to take note of the details whilst in store and then either feed it into Survey Monkey or email to penny.middleton@nfus.org.uk when you get home.”
