Australian Pork Limited (APL) Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Spencer said: "The history of the levy increase goes back to the APL Annual General Meeting held in November 2011. This is when Australian pig farmers endorsed a proposal to increase the marketing portion of the Pig Slaughter Levy by a total of 90 cents per slaughter pig.

"At the same time the decision was made that to alleviate the impact of a 90 cent rise in one go, the increase would take place over three tranches. The first rise of $0.30 came into effect on 1 July 2012. The second tranche of a further $0.30 is set to take effect from 1 July 2014, with the third and final tranche of $0.30 to come into effect from1 July 2016."

Prior to 2012, the Pig Slaughter Levy was increased in 1994 to mainly cover APL’s Marketing, Research and Development (R&D) and Policy expenses. When the announcement was made in November 2011, it had been nearly 18 years since an increase in the R&D or Marketing levy had occurred.

"Inflation has erased an enormous amount of its value over this time and APL’s productivity improvements were having difficulty to keep up," Mr Spencer said. With slaughter figures forecast to be around 4.8 million pigs for 2014/15, this latest increase will lift APL’s producer contribution to the budget from just around $12.7 million to just over $14 million.

For ease of interpretation and levy break down, the table below articulates the current levy structure and future milestones. It does not take into consideration dollar for dollar research contributions from the Federal Government or additional state based levies that may also apply.