Bacon price hike to save industry

A national pig petition is set to back UK pig farmers whose livelihoods are threatened by high feed prices and cheap foreign meat.

Now a national pig petition is being launched today to support British pig farmers who say their livelihoods are threatened by soaring feed prices and competition from cheap imports.

The campaign is backed by celebrity chefs from Gordon Ramsey to Rick Stein, and launched by Waitrose. But in a global market should consumers be expected to pay more for products just because they're British? Here is Jane Dodge.

Most of us have a soft spot for pigs, not enough though to stop us eating them. Bacon is the nation's favorite meat. But the butties we know and love could become a luxury in the future according to pig farmers. They say they're struggling to survive, a big rise in the cost of feed means they're no longer making a profit. Some are quitting. Others like Martin Martindale in Hampshire have scaled down production.

Solely, we've seen our overdraft rise, uh, some 3 times, uh, triple in size over the last 6 months, um, if the, if the situation continues, um, then we will find it increasingly difficult to stay in businesses, we will have to charge more for our product.

To make that palatable to consumers, a campaign has been launched today called "Save Our Bacon".

According to the industry the cost of rearing a pig is around 106 pounds. But farmers only get 80 pounds when it's sold, so that's a loss of 26 pounds. Farmers now want consumers to pay more for their pork.

Aren't you just at the end of the day asking us to buy British?

That's part of what we're trying to do, but the problems behind the British product, the freshness, the welfare standards that we've produced to are all far better than there is available from imported product.

Standards may well be high here. But competitors argue their product is just as good and cheaper.

There are occasions I would say where individual governments, uh, go ahead of the basic EU legislation which is, uh, to which we must alter it here, uh, that has happened in this country we would accept, with certain aspects of uh, pig welfare, but Danish farmers would also point to areas, in the area of welfare where their government has gone further than the government here.

Ultimately this is a fight for hearts and minds - British pig farmers have to persuade consumers that quality is worth paying more for.