Good year for British breeding pig exports

It looks as though in 2006 the trade will be worth close to €15 million - over €1 million more than last year. One of the best markets for British breeding stock this year is Russia and shipments are now starting to go to China as well following the opening of that market.

 

BPEX export manager Jean-Pierre Garnier said: "Britain is seen as a world reference for pig breeding. It looks as though we are heading for another bumper year - the figures for last year were a record and I believe we will do even better this year. The Russian market has been particularly buoyant and the Chinese market is picking up but that will be more for high value nucleus stock of mostly pure bred animals, because of the sheer cost of transporting them."

 

Garnier continued, "BPEX has been working closely with the British Pig Association and the breeding companies to open and establish markets and that is really bearing fruit now. This teamwork will continue over the autumn when we promote British genetics at Polagra in Poland, Eurotier in Germany and Indagra in Romania."

 

Last year, Great Britain exported about 77,000 breeding pigs, worth about €13.8 million. They were exported to 17 different countries including Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Hungary, Germany and the Philippines.

 

• British Pig Executive (BPEX)