The English pig industry - Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee Contents


Examination of Witness (Questions 160-169)

MR JOHN DYSON

27 OCTOBER 2008

  Q160  David Taylor: I just wondered if you had any idea what that cost might be.

  Mr Dyson: No, not at this stage. It will depend on what the structure of the industry is going to look like in five years.

  Q161  David Taylor: How well do you think the British taxpayer would take it if more money was being passed on to pig farmers?

  Mr Dyson: We are in a situation where, if we are going to support our industries and people are interested in pig farming and buying British pork and they see this as a way forward, then I am sure it can be explained.

  Q162  David Taylor: The best way of supporting industry should be a relatively low cost one of the British Hospitality Association, the British Retail Consortium and others not conspiring in the misleading labelling of pork products that we see on a grand scale. I am not suggesting you are responsible for it but are you fighting against it vigorously enough? That would be the best way of helping the British pig meat industry, would it not?

  Mr Dyson: There is no conspiracy in the British Hospitality Association with respect to labelling. That is not happening. The industry is not conspiring against the consumer in any way.

  David Taylor: I do not think I have ever seen a restaurant that has made a big issue of the provenance of the pig and it being British.

  Q163  Mr Gray: I am a bit puzzled by this. Your job as the British Hospitality Association is to provide first class hospitality and therefore if you can buy anything—in this case it is pig meat—for 40% cheaper from overseas than you can from here, and if the consumer is perfectly happy to eat that bacon from Denmark rather than bacon from Wiltshire, why on earth do you think the taxpayer, especially at a time like this, should stump up large sums of money to subsidise an industry which is unable to produce goods at a competitive price? Surely you can tell people, "This is great. Cheap stuff is coming in from Denmark and frankly I do not care whether British farmers cannot compete. What is the problem with that?" Why do you as the BHA have a strong view on this?

  Mr Dyson: The countryside is an important part of tourism. If we do not have farms, we do not have animals. We do not have tourism. It is not going to help. You only have to look at the damage that was done by the foot and mouth outbreak. We have had damage done to the pig industry by a foot and mouth outbreak in recent times. The reality of life is we believe that we should support the farming industry full stop. We should have a countryside that is worth people going to see and tourism is an important part of the economy of this country. Therefore, there is a good reason for supporting the UK.

  Q164  Mr Gray: Surely the whole point about the CAP reforms is moving away from subsidies in particular parts of farming. Beef, dairy and vegetables and everything else are now competitive and making money. What you are saying is you would like the government to subsidise one particular small part of the industry, the pig industry only, and fork out large sums of money to keep the pig industry going despite the fact that it is completely uncompetitive with the rest of Europe. I do not follow that. The argument about the countryside is one thing but what you do not want to see in the countryside is free range pigs. They make one hell of a mess. I would much rather see cows and sheep.

  Mr Dyson: If the industry had had a level playing field to play off to begin with and they had not been landed with the costs of the welfare regulations, then life would probably have been a lot simpler than it is now.

  Q165  Dan Rogerson: You believe this collaborative work on developing just what it is the consumer wants to see could increase the confidence of the industry to do more about reporting that back so that people will see it as a positive? The work that McDonalds does about saying where things come from a bit more may be slightly less on this and means that everybody will be able to move forward together. That will hopefully put the local industry on a far more secure footing.

  Mr Dyson: Yes.

  Q166  Chairman: You touched very briefly on the Scottish Sector Task Force of which you are part. Do you think that its aims and objectives are sensible and practical? Do you think we ought to have one in England?

  Mr Dyson: I did not say we were part of the Scottish Pig Sector Task Force. I went up there for a meeting with various parts of the Scottish pig industry and they talked about producing the Scottish working party, but they did not invite us to join the working party. We found that a bit strange but we did say that we would be part of a working group that looks at provenance labelling. That is what we are doing.

  Q167  Chairman: You are an adjunct to it?

  Mr Dyson: Absolutely.

  Q168  Chairman: Given that you took an interest in it, I am not quite clear what it is supposed to be doing. What is it supposed to be doing?

  Mr Dyson: I am not 100% certain what the Scottish Working Party on Pigs is doing. I think it is there to help to try to promote Scottish pigs and the Scottish pig industry one way or the other.

  Q169  Chairman: We ought to address our questions to them and say, "What are you doing?" It would perhaps be unfair for you then to nail your colours to the mast as to whether we should have one in England or not.

  Mr Dyson: I think you should ask them the question.

  Chairman: Thank you very much indeed. You have given us a clear insight into how the hospitality industry sees this problem both in your oral evidence and in your written evidence and for both we are most grateful. Thank you very much.





 
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