Today, the rural landscape is often defended as a sanctuary from urban pressures, a place where contact with nature and a slower pace shape a preferred lifestyle. Yet from within the industry there is a more sobering, perhaps clearer picture of what the primary sector actually delivers to families, farms, and communities. In the Galician town of O Carballiño, Pepe Fraiz and his wife run a Celtic pig farm that challenges the ideal of rural life with blunt practicality. They observe that much of what is sold to processors does not yield a fair return for the farmers who raise the animals, and the price dynamics tell a story that is hard to ignore.
Farmers report that meat processors typically pay around 3.20 euros per kilogram for pigs, a figure that feels disconnected from the final retail prices seen by consumers. A straightforward look at common pork products across two familiar supermarket chains shows a wide spread: pork chops can be priced at 4.45 euros per kilo in one store and 8.29 euros in the other, while cooked ham can list for 7.59 euros in one chain and 12.50 euros in the other. Serrano ham, depending on the chain, can fetch 9.55 euros per kilo in one outlet and 12.37 euros in another, though the comparisons do not align brands across stores. These gaps illustrate how margins can compress at the farm level while retail prices are driven by different forces at each link in the chain.
This contrast fuels a stark reality for Fraiz and his partner. They have chosen to bypass the traditional wholesale route and instead embrace direct sales from the farm to consumers. Their operation includes 23 pigs of the Galician breed, and the move to direct-to-consumer sales supports healthier profit margins by eliminating some middleman costs. Direct sales allow for flexibility in pricing and quantity depending on demand, and the Fraizes negotiate with each buyer to reach a fair agreement. They find that a price around six euros per pig is attainable in retail settings, a figure far removed from processor offers but within reach for dedicated customers who value the farm origin of the meat. In this setup, processors often preserve larger profits for big companies, while smaller producers struggle to compete on price without direct access to buyers who prize local and artisanal products.
As a small family farm, the Fraizes do not produce a formal, itemized profit margin per kilogram of meat. However, they estimate the daily feed cost per animal to be around forty cents, a routine figure that compounds over time. This basic calculation reinforces their stance: selling to processors is not viable for them. The consequence, they argue, is a broader erosion of rural viability because price structures tilt away from sustainable family farming and toward concentration among larger players. Their warning is clear: without a livable price, the rural model faces a future where farmers cannot sustain their livelihoods, and rural life may cease to feel feasible for many families.
The farm has weathered a series of upheavals since its inception in early 2019, just before the onset of the pandemic. The pandemic heightened the uncertainty, while the war in Ukraine added new pressures through rising costs for essential inputs. A concrete example helps frame the strain: wheat, which might have cost around twenty-five cents per kilo, has surged to around forty cents per kilo in times of tighter global markets. For farmers who operate on tight margins, such spikes matter. The overall takeaway from Fraiz is practical and sobering: meat prices require ongoing adjustment to reflect real production costs if local farms are to survive and remain part of a diverse and resilient food system. The long-term question they pose is not merely about profitability but about the ability of rural households to survive and thrive in a global market that often seems to reward scale at the expense of small farms.
The Fraiz family continues to navigate a difficult balance between sustaining a traditional farming lifestyle and adapting to modern economic realities. Their experience is a case study in the broader struggle faced by small, family-owned farms across many regions, where direct sales can offer a viable path forward but also demand a high level of commitment to marketing, customer relationships, and supply management. They believe that a fairer price for meat, one that reflects the costs of production and the value of local, responsibly raised products, could help sustain rural livelihoods and keep families connected to the land. The ongoing story of this farm illustrates both the challenges and the opportunities that define contemporary farming, suggesting that direct-to-consumer models may be essential for preserving rural ecosystems and the communities that depend on them.