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Agriculture: British Pig Industry

The key issue is the quality of the work being done, and the progress that has been made by the task force. There is no doubt that it has achieved a great deal during its year. The task force agreed a number of measures that commend themselves to the House, judging by the contributions to this evening’s debate. The task force was concerned about the competitiveness and environmental performance of the industry. This endorses the important point emphasised by the noble Lord, Lord Palmer, about the voluntary code of practice to provide clearer labelling, which will benefit consumers and the supply chain. New guidance will assist public sector procurers to buy better-quality pig meat products that meet higher welfare standards. There is no doubt that labelling of great importance to that. There is not much point in us producing a higher-quality product if people are not able to choose it because it is not accurately labelled. Nor is there much incentive for those who produce to lower standards to improve them if they can produce a less expensive product that is not identified as not having reached the right standards. We will have to wait until 2013 before these full standards are adopted across Europe: it is a long lead-in time. We wanted this to happen a great deal more quickly, but the price of getting the agreement of Europe to this position was a longer lead-in time than we would have liked. However, I hope that noble Lords will recognise that it is a very important step forward, and that the labelling issue is of great importance, particularly as the supermarkets have a significant role to play.