Producers to Be Consulted on Levy Restoration
UK - Pig producers are to be consulted on restoring 10p to the levy. The producer levy was cut by 10p in April. Since then producers have been paying 75p instead of 85p. Processors have continued paying a 20p levy, bringing the total levy collected to 95p per pig slaughtered.A majority of the BPEX board voted in favour yesterday of recommending to levypayers that the 10p be restored.
The 10p cut was introduced because BPEX had built up healthy strategic reserves and wanted to return some of the money to producers in the current difficult climate.
Another mechanism used by BPEX to return reserves to levypayers was the PCV2 voucher scheme, which continues until December.
BPEX also agreed to allocate £1.5m from reserves to the Pigs Are Worth It campaign, which will continue to run.
By raiding its reserves, BPEX gave itself an income of around £10m this year, which it has used to help producers through the feed cost crisis.
However, because the money has come from reserves, income for 2009-10 will return to the much lower level of about £7.8m (depending on the size of the national herd and the number of slaughter pigs produced).