By Duncan Garner
The price of New Zealand-grown pork may rise as a result of a decision to ban sow crates for pigs.
The Government is phasing out the controversial crates so they will all be gone by the end of 2015 – five years away.
The images of large pigs locked in sow crates for 365 days a year highlighted the cruel conditions in many New Zealand pig farms.
It embarrassed the industry and caught the Government on the hop but today it all changed.
“It is a code that will, by the end of December 2015, phase out the use of sow crates entirely,” Agriculture Minister David Carter said today.
So the way of the future is large pig pens.
Hawke’s Bay pig farmer John Riordan says he supports the ban and is already working towards getting rid of his sow crates.
“As a farmer I think it's a good thing; clearly the consumer has no appetite for sow crates,” he says.
Animal welfare campaigners have lobbied successive governments for decades.
Pig farms will start the phase out period from 2012; sow stalls will only be allowed to be used for four weeks after mating.
Green MP Sue Kedgley has fought tirelessly to see sow crates banned.
“It's the most significant change in animal welfare in decades," she says.
The industry says introducing the measures will cost $20 million.
“It will financially be very, very difficult, we need the support of the consumer to purchase local product," Mr Riordan says.
It may push up the price of pork products.
“I do acknowledge that New Zealand pork may now be marginally more expensive than imported pork," Mr Carter says.
New Zealand imports 700,000kg of pork every week from overseas countries where sow crates are still being used and will be used in the years ahead.
David Carter says the New Zealand industry should now use the new rules to market Kiwi pork to savvy consumers.
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