But that lack is not reflected in other areas of the industry according to the latest confidence survey by BPEX.

The survey, which has now been running annually since 2006, measures confidence by examining attitudes towards re-investment in the business.

The majority said it was not lack of access to finance that was the inhibiting factor but uncertainty about the returns.

Any investment that was taking place was mostly to improve efficiency or replace aging buildings and equipment rather than increasing the size of the business.

On a more positive note producers and other parts of supply chain felt their competitiveness had improved when set against UK, EU and global businesses in the last 12 months.

The survey also provided some useful feedback on the quality of BPEX services. This will be reviewed both by the board and the BPEX team, hoping further to enhance the relevance of service to all customers.

BPEX head of Communications Andrew Knowles said: “I would like to thank everybody who took part in this survey, especially in these difficult times.

“The survey underlines the crisis as a result of the gap between cost of production and pig prices.

“The volatility of feed prices looks set to continue for at least the rest of this year and therefore something has to change in the attitude and behaviour of the supply chain if producer confidence is to be restored.”