SUPERMARKET shelves could start emptying this weekend because of a proposed depot blockade, angry farmers warned today.

Pig farmers, furious at the sale of cheap pork from abroad where welfare standards are lower, say they are planning blockades of up to three depots in Yorkshire tomorrow night.

They say lorries could be prevented from gaining access for up to ten hours, disrupting the supply of goods to supermarkets in the region.

At the same time, farmers and their supporters are planning to go round supermarkets, sticking red warning stickers on packs of pork, bacon, ham and sausages from abroad.

The new guerrilla tactics are being drawn up by the reformed British Pig Industry Support Group, which organised blockades at Tesco and Asda distribution depots over low pig meat prices in 1999.

Spokesman John Rowbottom, of Melrose Farm at Melbourne, near Pocklington, said the disruption to supplies then was enough to empty supermarket shelves, and the same could happen again this week.

He said farmers and their supporters would physically stand in front of the depot entrances, blocking the path of the delivery lorries.

He said their aims were two fold. They want:

Clear supermarket labelling to let customers know when pork products have been imported from abroad, and production methods may have fallen below British welfare standards

An end to increasing pressure on farmers and processors by the retailers, which has recently seen pig meat prices fall to £1 a kg or less.

Mr Rowbottom said pig farmers from East, North and West Yorkshire and Lincolnshire were expected to take part, including his son Edward. "We want the younger people to be involved, as this is all about their future - about whether they have a future in pig farming," he said.

He said stall and tether systems, which prevent sows moving around, had been banned on British farms since 1999, but were still allowed abroad, helping to reduce their production costs. But supermarkets did not label their products to give customers full information.

A Tesco spokesman said it sold more UK pig meat than any other retailer.

"To ensure we meet demand from customers, we have to source a small amount of pork from the EU," he said.

"Where we do import we insist on equivalent farm standards and animal welfare and all our products are clearly labelled with country of origin."

MP's cash plea

A NORTH Yorkshire MP has called on the Government to "pay up" before farmers and traders fall deeper into a cash-flow crisis.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Ryedale MP John Greenway warned of "serious difficulties" ahead for farmers and businesses in York, North and East Yorkshire, unless money owed to them is paid quickly.

Mr Greenway received backing from Stockton-on-the-Forest beef farmer Rosie Dunn, a leading figure in the National Farmers' Union (NFU).

Mrs Dunn said the Government's new farm payment system, which works out subsidies on the basis of past receipts and land area, was "a shambles".

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) had promised the bulk of the new payments would be made by the end of the month, but now some farmers could have to wait until June to receive their money.

In Parliament, Mr Greenway asked Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett: "Does she realise that not just farmers, but the agricultural supply trade and many hauliers are also dependent on receipt of the payments? Does she not think it important that she gives a date by which, unless a substantial proportion of payments have been made, there will be interim payments? Many of those businesses simply cannot survive until June."

Mrs Beckett said Mr Greenway was "absolutely right". She said: "We are extremely mindful of the pressures on those business."

She said she could not rule in or out making interim payments, but pledged to "keep the matter very much under review".

Updated: 10:46 Wednesday, March 29, 2006