Marketing and animal welfare: key to success

Innovative marketing and customer relationships are essential to a modern piggery, says Shaun Mockford of Mockford Farms in Limpopo. He spoke to Magda du Toit about running a superior pig production operation.

- Magda du Toit

FAST FACTS

Mockford Farms was started in 1956, and began intensive pig farming in 1970.

The farm covers just under 2 000ha. In addition to running a piggery, brothers Shaun and Brad Mockford also plant maize and lucerne.

They place strong emphasis on modern marketing methods and the welfare of their animals.

Worldwide, rising public concern about animal welfare and the W ethical rearing of livestock has placed increasing responsibility on the agriculture sector. Today's consumers want to know more about the product they buy, particularly where it comes from (traceability) and how it was produced. These demands necessitate that farmers revise their production methods and standards, and this often places a serious constraint on profitability.

In addition to these challenges, South African pig producers have to cope with an increase in labour and energy costs as well as unstable power supply.

DIRECT MARKETING

To remain profitable, some farmers are shortening the value chain by eliminating the middleman and selling directly to consumers at farmers' markets, over the Internet, or by vertically expanding into the value chain by opening retail shops, according to Shaun Mockford, a partner with his brother Brad in Mockford Farms, near Polokwane in Limpopo.

Mockford is also president of the Pig Breeders' Society of South Africa and an executive council member of the South African Pork Producers' Organisation (SAPPO).

"We have excellent pork producers in South Africa. The challenge is to increase per capita pork consumption. It's necessary to improve the way we present our product and improve the eating experience of the consumer." The Mockford family recently opened the doors of its own farm-to-fork retail shop, The Flying Pig, in Polokwane.