THE number of pigs being slaughtered in Northern Ireland has hit record levels in 2021, according to official government figures.
The Department of Agriculture (DAERA) has recorded 828,115 slaughterings at bacon factories here in the first five months of the year, the busiest start to the year since the department began publishing the data in 2003.
Pig processing has increased year-on-year in the north since 2016, hitting a record 1.9 million slaughtered pigs in 2020.
But the industry is already six per cent up on last year’s performance.
The ongoing uncertainty around the protocol and the potential ban on the transport of chilled meats from Britain to the north, has resulted in some major supermarkets switching from GB to local pork suppliers.
While the months leading up to Christmas is traditionally the busiest quarter for pig processing in Northern Ireland, the first quarter of 2021 saw almost half a million pigs slaughtered here.
It marked the busiest first quarter (Q1) for the industry on record and the second highest quarter on record overall, surpassed only by the three months leading up to Christmas last year, when 526,431 pigs were killed.
It comes as the group behind one the north’s biggest pig processing operations reported a significant surge in turnover and profit during 2020.
Dartan Hall Holdings, the group behind Co Armagh’s JMW Farms, has reported a 383 per cent surge in pre-tax profit to £14.5m for the year ending September 30 2020.
It followed a 30 per cent increase in annual turnover to £83.4m for the period.
The company said it followed an increase in the volume of pigs it processes and the increased market value for the animals.
The group processes around 7,000 pigs per week from its operation in Co Armagh, around one-in-five of all pigs slaughtered in the north.
The Co Armagh operation, which is controlled by brothers Jim and Mark Wright, along with Andrew Irwin, has now launched a bid to develop a £75 million automated pork processing plant in Ballymoney,
The project is centred on the site of the former Malton Bacon factory in Agivey, which was destroyed by fire in June 1998.
