A "perfect storm" of Brexit and Covid-19 have left pig farmers facing their biggest crisis in decades - with thousands of animals stranded on farms getting too fat for their markets.

Export delays caused by post-Brexit paperwork, coupled with staff shortages and meat processing hold-ups due to Covid-19 outbreaks, have created a backlog of more than 100,000 pigs on farms across the country, according to the National Pig Association (NPA).

As a result, many more animals need to be cared for and provided with increasingly expensive feed and straw, while gaining too much weight to meet their specifications for supermarkets - prompting mounting losses for farmers, who are estimated to be losing around £20 for each pig they produce.

Earlier this week, farming minister Victoria Prentis chaired a "constructive" online meeting also attended by environment secretary George Eustice, senior Defra officials and representatives from the farming, processing and retail sectors.

Among them was Norfolk pig farmer Rob Mutimer, managing director of Swannington Farm to Fork near Reepham and vice chairman of the NPA.

Eastern Daily Press: Norfolk pig farmer Rob Mutimer, of Swannington Farm to Fork, is vice chairman of the National Pig AssociationNorfolk pig farmer Rob Mutimer, of Swannington Farm to Fork, is vice chairman of the National Pig Association (Image: Archant)

He said he was "very encouraged" that ministers had recognised the scale of the problem, but now action was urgently needed from government and all sections of the industry.

"It is a perfect storm," he said. "Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. There is no silver bullet that is going to fix things overnight, but we need to see action from all sides to clear this backlog, because it is becoming a major difficulty.

"For the 100,000 pigs kept on farms, once they go over a certain weight they become a lot less valuable to the food chain. We would be penalised hugely for any boars over 110kg, because they are not suitable for the market they are going into.

"No-one wants a pork chop that is the size of a spade. The joints become too big to eat and they don't fit in the packaging for the supermarkets.

"When the sows finish their breeding life we look to get them away from the farm as soon as possible, but when some of them are stuck there for six to nine weeks extra it is increasing the costs and massively increasing our workload all the time.

"The last three months have been the hardest time we have had in the pig industry since Foot and Mouth disease (in 2001). It has been horrendous."

Mr Mutimer said there were "practical things the government could do", including exerting pressure on EU trading partners to smooth border checks and improve "archaic" export paperwork demands, as well as improving the coronavirus vaccination and testing programmes for workers in high-risk food processing factories.

"Having processing plants and abattoirs closed for two or three weeks at a time has a massive effect on the animals we can get slaughtered," he said.

"We do have contingency plans in place which the industry has been using very efficiently, to make sure there are no problems with animal welfare, but it is very difficult when it comes at a time of year when the bad weather creates a lot more work for our staff."

A government spokesman said: "We’ve always been clear that there would be new processes for traders, and we continue to support them in their transition to these new arrangements.

“We are working closely with British meat processors to ensure they can take advantage of the opportunities and changes being outside the single market and customs union will bring, and overall businesses are adjusting well to the new rules and continue to trade effectively.”

NPA chief executive Zoe Davies said retailers at the meeting reported that demand for British pork was currently strong, "so if processors could provide the product, they would sell it".

“Whilst the biggest demand was for bacon, which is something that British pig farmers cannot produce enough of, one helpfully suggested that we ask AHDB (the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board) to look at national carcase balance to see which cuts could benefit from further promotion,” she said.