Future Of British Business
Britain’s Pork Output to Plunge as Higher Costs Shrink Herds
- Farms have culled pigs on worker shortages and soaring costs
- Smaller UK production means more imports will be needed
Cuts of bacon for sale at a butcher in London.
Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Brits will have much less homegrown bacon this year as pork output plunges, threatening to keep prices high.
The UK’s pig sector has been hit hard in recent years. Tens of thousands of animals were culled because slaughterhouses were short of workers in the wake Brexit and the Covid pandemic. Then, Russia’s war in Ukraine boosted producers’ feed and energy costs.