Pig producers have welcomed new changes to the government's Slaughter Incentive Payment Scheme (SIPS), calling it a 'much-needed boost' for the troubled sector.
Changes have been made to the scheme from 18 February to remove the requirement for pigmeat, from pigs slaughtered during a SIPS 2022 shift, to go for export or into the private storage aid scheme, which opened in November 2021.
The change means that pigs slaughtered can now be sold on the domestic market for higher prices than for product going into PSA or for export.
The revised SIPS 2022 means the payment rate for eligible pigs has increased from £3 to £10 per pig, Defra explained on Friday (18 February).
It comes as the sector continues to see major challenges, including the impact of the pandemic, access to CO2 supplies, a shortage of labour and the loss of the Chinese market to several processing plants.
This has led to a growing number of pigs backing up on farm, impacting the capacity of processors to slaughter and process pigs.
Pig prices have also fallen, and without continued intervention the sector fears they could rapidly fall even further.
The change to SIPS was one of the National Pig Association's (NPA) key asks at last week’s pig industry crisis summit, as the previous restrictions on SIPs were 'severely limiting uptake'.
The NPA explained that processors had little incentive to use it when they knew they could not sell pork on the domestic market.
The body's chairman Rob Mutimer said the government's new change was a 'much-needed boost' to the pig industry.
"It should encourage processors to put on these extra kills and, in turn, speed up progress in reducing the backlog," he explained.
“We are grateful to Defra for listening to our arguments and taking this important step to help struggling pig producers.”
Defra said it was aiming to incentivise processors to maximise the use of additional butchers from January by putting on more shifts than was possible at the end of 2021.
It is anticipated that the scheme will close on 31 March, or earlier if the limit of 100,000 pigs slaughtered is reached, with the claim window due to run from 1-29 April.
