Despite a recent upturn in pig prices, producers in Northern Ireland (NI) are still in dire financial straits with most losing around £35 (€41) for every pig slaughtered.

James McCluggage, policy manager at the Ulster Farmers’ Union, said production costs are well over the £2/kg (€2.35/kg) mark on local pig units.

“Feed costs alone equate to around £1.65/kg (€1.94/kg) and all other costs are somewhere between 40p/kg and 43p/kg on top of that,” he said.

The latest official figures show the average price paid for clean pigs in NI sits at £1.74/kg (€2.04/kg), so typical losses for producers amount to around 35p/kg (41c/kg).

Prices have been rising from a low of £1.42/kg (€1.67/kg) which was seen in early March, but the figures suggest the market has a lot more ground to make up before producers start to break even.

“All retailers need to do more. There needs to be more of a focus on the primary producer, rather than just the consumer,” McCluggage said.

Tesco recently announced it would pay UK pig producers an extra £10m to help with high feed costs, but this was described as “a drop in the ocean” by McCluggage.

“Yes, it is gratefully received, but it doesn’t amount to much on a per-farm basis,” he said.