Europe’s pig farmers have failed to agree on a common course of action

Date: 08/04/1999

to tackle the industry's ongoing crisis. Representatives from the Union's largest pig producing countries - France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Spain and Germany - met in Paris this week to try to find a consensus on what measures were needed to help lift prices which have sunk to record lows. French pig farmers called for fixed production controls to limit the number of pigs coming onto the market and a mass slaughter plan for young piglets, but ran into opposition from Denmark and the Netherlands. These countries want EU money to be spent on subsidising exports of surplus pigmeat to ensure the Union continues to be a player on the world market in the face of US competition.