Pigs: Livestock Industry
(asked on 9th June 2026) - View Source
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to mandate equitable, legally binding, cost-of-production contracts between major supermarkets, processors and independent pig farmers.
Answered by
Stephen Morgan
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The āFair Dealing Obligations (Pigs) Regulationsā aim to strengthen the pig sector by improving how contracts operate and giving farmers more control over how they sell their pigs.
They introduce statutory requirements for written contracts between pig producers and purchasers, supporting more transparent and equitable supply arrangements across the supply chain, including processors supplying major retailers.
The FDOP are the result of extensive consultation with farmers, producer groups and the wider industry. They have applied to any new contracts since August 2025 and will come into force fully (for all contracts) from August 2026.