Today, defending the advantages of the rural world from both business, corporate and political initiatives is the daily bread: contact with nature, a life away from the hustle and bustle of the city… But, from the inside, there is a more pessimistic view (or perhaps realistically) about what the primary sector actually means. “Anything about going back to the countryside is a fallacy, a lie,” says Pepe Fraiz, who runs a Celtic pig farm in the Ourense town of O Carballiño with his wife.
“Everything sold to processors Not profitable or funny‘ he protests. Meat processors typically pay farmers 3.20 euros per kilogram of pig, Fraiz says. This is despite a simple comparison of the prices of different pork products in two well-known supermarket chains revealing that pork chops cost 4.45 euros per kilo in one and 8.29 euros in the other, whereas a kilo of cooked ham is 7.59 and 12.50 in the former. . in the second case, when it comes to Serrano ham, one chain sells it for 9.55 euros per kilo and the other for 12.37 (this comparison is not based on products from the same brands).
“This is devastating”
That’s why Pepe Fraiz and his wife opt for direct retail sales on their farm, which has 23 pigs of the above-mentioned Galician variety, a practice that ensures better profit margins for the farmer. If not, “it’s devastating,” he complains. Although he does not sell at a fixed price (unlike traders who set a fixed price, direct-to-consumer sales allow for a more flexible decision on quantity), he sees it as a “reasonable price”, although he negotiates with each buyer. get along” would be six euros per pig, a figure far from what processors offer, but within reach in the retail market. “With the prices of processors, still somewhat compensates the big companies, but not the small manufacturer” gives value.
Because it’s a small family farm, he doesn’t have a study of his profit margin per kilo of meat, but he calculates that it costs about 40 cents a day to feed each animal. That’s why it’s “not possible” to sell to processors. “With this, people don’t go back to the field”, criticism. And he warns: “And my situation is the same as that of the whole world.”
Fraiz and his wife run the O Carballiño farm “in early 2019, shortly before the pandemic started,” so there was uncertainty from the beginning. Of course, they noticed a significant increase in costs as a result of the war in Ukraine. “The wheat was about 25 cents a kilo; now it can reach 40, he gives an example. The man from Ourense said, “The price of meat needs to be adjusted a little more, because if it isn’t, doesn’t keep you alive”.