World meat industry news

The English breakfast may be more likely to feature sausages from European farms in future as plunging prices force more and more UK pig farmers to quit

Special pig farms will see their income fall 46 per cent from £49,400 to £26,5000 in 2016 Getty

Britain’s pig farmers are feeling the pressure as yearly income for pig-only farms forecast to fall by 46 per cent this year.

The English breakfast may be more likely to feature sausages from European farms in future as plunging prices force more and more UK pig farmers to quit.

Special pig farms will see their income fall 46 per cent from £49,400 to £26,5000 in 2016, according to the latest forecasts from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra).

The decline was the largest proportional fall for any type of farm, with the dairy sector close behind, recording a decrease of 45 per cent on the year.

Prices have come down by an average of £25 in year. This is equivalent to a loss of near £10 per pig sold, according to Richard Lister a pig farmer in Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire.

"Clearly we can't do that in the long-term. In the short-term that's resulted in increasing borrowings, we've had to cancel various re-investment projects, but it puts the business under pressure, it puts the industry under pressure," he told the BBC.

Russia’s ban on European food imports, put in place in response to western sanctions, has cut out the largest market for EU’s pig farmers.

Russia imports around 90 per cent of its pork, with Canada supplying 40 per cent of that. The ban means that those farmers will now have to find alternative markets.