home  /  read the story  /  it's new  / what they are doing  /  contact us

Click a category below to search : Abattoirs ------------------- Biosecurity ------------------- Breeding Companies ------------------- Buildings ------------------- Cleaning ------------------- Computer Software ------------------- Equipment ------------------- Feeding ------------------- Feeding Systems ------------------- Health ------------------- Housing ------------------- Hygiene ------------------- Identification ------------------- Laboratories ------------------- Marketing ------------------- Mill and Mix ------------------- Pest Control ------------------- Professional services ------------------- Pig Organisations ------------------- Recruitment ------------------- Slurry ------------------- Tanks ------------------- Water and Irrigation

Your guide to industry organisations The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) is a statutory levy board funded by farmers and processors. A statutory instrument legally obliges AHDB to collect a levy from the Pork, Cereals and Oilseeds, Beef and Lamb, and Dairy sectors. The purpose of the levy is to address things that are vital but that will not otherwise get done by individuals or commercial organisations. While we are prohibited from lobbying, our independent evidence is used by government, trade organisations, media, and our marketing campaigns as we seek to protect and promote all sectors. Pork Sector Plan The AHDB Pork Sector Council decides where the pork levy is invested on your behalf each year. The sector plan was shaped by what levy payers told us was most important. *Marketing *Exports *Reputation These themes support one another, and all our work improves one or more of these. Marketing AHDB's insight data shows consumers are becoming ever more challenging regarding the impact of meat eating on human health, animal health and welfare, and the environment. We use the consumer insight evidence to inspire a positive attitude towards British pork by championing it as a healthy, sustainable and versatile choice. We know that reminding shoppers to choose pork, for home cooking or when eating out, is an essential component for long-term profitability. Towards the end of last year, we began making changes to the way we market pork, as we were finally able to promote it as British. Previously this was restricted by EU State Aid Rules. We can now support British products more openly so long as there is no trade distortion. As a result, our Autumn campaign 'Feed Your Family For Less With British Pork' was complimented by a new Love Pork logo featuring the Union Flag alongside the Red Tractor logo. Our 'Mix Up Midweek with Pork' campaign that ran in early 2023 put the focus on lean and healthier cuts such as medallions, fillet, loin steak and 5% mince. The campaign reached 27 million adults across all channels which included ITV, Channel 4 and Sky and achieved 68 million impressions across social media. Eight major supermarkets participated through online banners, instore branding, and on-pack stickers which featured a QR code linking to healthy recipes. A key focus continues to be the younger Gen Z (18-25-year-olds) audience. Our goal is to ensure that pork is a regular choice in their baskets, as they are becoming an increasingly important target audience in maintaining long-term demand. The main 'Mix Up Midweek' campaign messages successfully landed with over three-quarters of the Gen Z audience agreeing that pork provides nine vitamins and minerals as well as offering good value. Measuring impact on sales is extremely expensive so most years the money is spent on promotions rather than measurement. However, in 2020 measurement showed that the first three years of the 'Mix Up Midweek' campaign delivered a combined uplift in sales of £37.3 million, which, if attributed to AHDB activities, shows how much value paying a levy offers. Exports AHDB, in collaboration with industry and government, supports UK pig meat sales overseas to enable every part of the pig to be sold for the best value. In turn, this work underpins domestic pig prices and addresses carcase balance issues. For 2023/24 we set a budget of £2.5 million to help continue to grow our global reputation as a producer of quality, safe and wholesome food. In 2022, the value of pig meat exports rose to £624 million. Volume surpassed 372,000 tonnes, which was an increase of 7% compared to the previous year. Offal drove most of the uplift while China remained the biggest market, taking nearly 127,000 tonnes. Last year we continued our activity at trade fairs. AHDB had a big presence at Anuga 2023 in Cologne, Germany, which was the most important event on the calendar for the global food industry. The biennial show attracted more than 100,000 influential visitors from around the world. Elsewhere our export team returned to SIAL Shanghai for the first time since the Covid pandemic and opportunities for UK pork exports to Chile, amid an anticipated growth in consumer demand, were explored in Santiago. We also invited several Japanese importers for a five-day mission, to learn more about sustainable pork, beef, and lamb production. It was the first inward mission from Asia since the pandemic and included a number of farm visits as well as a networking dinner with leading exporters to consider new business opportunities. Reputation AHDB is in a unique position to provide unbiased data and evidence to show the truth about British pig farming, challenge misrepresentations, and champion the best aspects of the industry. This is all vital to protect and promote the reputation of the sector. Stable Isotope Reference Analysis (SIRA) is used to verify whether pork products claiming to be British are truly British. SIRA acts as both a deterrent and an early warning system. We cannot test everything, but we can test enough to discourage bad actors and quickly discover whether a product is or is not consistent with British origin. Another example of using data to defend the UK pig industry from unfair criticism is the collection of antibiotic usage via the electronic Medicine Book (eMB) system. Last year it achieved a remarkable milestone by surpassing the 30% reduction target in total antibiotic use set by the RUMA Targets Task Force (TTF) between 2020 and 2024. This achievement represented an impressive eight-year reduction of 75%, highlighting the collaborative efforts throughout the sector. We have been involved in a major project aiming to reduce the environmental impact of ammonia emissions from livestock after ammonia-harvesting technology was trialled at a pig farm. The PigProGrAm, backed by £600,000 of government money, brought farming and engineering expertise together to demonstrate a farm-focused solution for the harvesting of green ammonia from pig waste that could also lead to the creation of hydrogen, a valuable tool in the fight against climate change. Training Underpinning our work in marketing, exports, and reputation is the upskilling of those in the pig industry. Last year we reintroduced Stockperson Plus, a programme of advanced workshops that address the growing challenges and responsibilities. We redesigned the syllabus to cover topics like water management, managing casualty pigs, and assurance schemes in more detail for the first time, with all learning moved online. The redeveloped programme helps cement AHDB's role as the leading organisation of such training and naturally follows on from the Stockperson Development Scheme to further develop the technical skills of pig unit staff. Everyone involved in the care, moving, and handling of pigs on farm needs to complete online welfare training as part of Red Tractor standards. The UK Pig Industry Welfare Training platform was developed by AHDB and the wider industry to ensure a consistent and high level of welfare throughout and demonstrate to consumers that we are a responsible industry that takes the care and welfare of our livestock seriously. Education If young people are not educated about the merits of eating pork, they may not do so and be drawn to other foodstuffs instead without understanding the full consequences for their own health and the environment. That is one of the reasons why we have partnered with LEAF Education to offer funded training opportunities to 20 farmers from across all sectors to help them deliver high-quality, safe, and memorable on-farm experiences for school children. Those involved will receive Countryside Educational Visits Accreditation Scheme training and accreditation. Contacts *Get in touch with the Pork team at: ahdb.org.uk/meet-the-team-pork *For general information and news, visit our website: ahdb.org.uk/pork *Subscribe to our weekly e-newsletter, Pork Weekly, at: preferencecentre.ahdb.org.uk

The Pig Guide, 4 Barleythorpe Mews, Main Road, Barleythorpe, Oakham, Rutland, LE15 7UZ Tel: 01572 757600. ~ email: bc@pig-guide.com