Update from the Pork Sector Council Chair (February 2025)

There was a maxim I used in a previous life to describe how markets were prone to change – slowly, then all at once. It tries to capture the sense that organic, iterative changes to a market or industry’s structure can develop over an extended period of time but can also reach a tipping point where dramatic changes are forced so that it reaches a new equilibrium. 

Many observers of our industry may well conclude that that point has been reached in the Pork sector. Since my last update, we have seen further integration and consolidation across different parts of the supply chain and increasing use of cost of production models looking to derisk input cost and access to raw materials.

It is not the place of AHDB, nor the Pork Sector Council, to opine on the commercial arrangements private companies make. But recent changes reinforce the imperative that AHDB exists to help meet the challenges in the industry that individual companies cannot, or have no commercial incentive to, address. Against this, the sector council’s current priorities stack up well.

Plans for the coming fiscal year are well advanced and will be discussed in more detail in my next update. There is clear desire across the sector council and the executive at AHDB to maximise the impact of our activities using a clear return-on-investment focus and building coordination across the supply chain.

I hope that you have already seen the new television advert, which is part of our This is British pork. But not as you know it campaign and went live at the start of the month. It is a vibrant and dynamic message that places British pork at the heart of midweek mealtimes. Backed by in-store support, we hope to exceed the 10:1 return on retail sales the previous campaign achieved.

A crucial part of sustaining the price premium achieved for pigs in the domestic market is ensuring that we have full access to important export markets. It was, therefore, fantastic news at the end of last year that two abattoirs whose licences to export to China had been suspended since the pandemic had those suspensions lifted.

It is testament to the tenacity and cooperation between the companies affected – AHDB, the Government and other trade bodies – that the restrictions have been reversed against an intensely challenging diplomatic environment. This will make a material difference to the overall carcase value to the entire industry.

Events in overseas markets in recent times have also highlighted potential fragility to the relatively benign industry dynamics at play in the domestic market. The discovery of foot-and-mouth disease in a herd of water buffalo in Germany is a stark reminder of the risk posed by outbreaks of certain diseases. It is to be hoped that the disease has been effectively contained, and so far the news offers some reason for hope.

However, it is a timely reminder that biosecurity protocols and well-understood contingency plans are crucial elements to limiting the impact of disease outbreaks. As noted in earlier letters, our website contains a wealth of resources to help optimise your planning. If there is something you think should be there and isn’t, please reach out to the team directly.

The last three to four months have seen an increase in the cadence of the AHDB executive and sector council’s dynamic engagement across the sector.

We continue to build a programme of meetings in various formats. We listen to both the hopes and the fears of our levy payers to better understand our role in meeting their aspirations. The meetings have been positively received, and I wholeheartedly believe that all parties came away much better informed.

These efforts will be sustained for the foreseeable future, as we make our way across, and up and down, the country. Please do get in touch with the Engagement team to set up a meeting.