THE cost to the pig industry of phasing out sow stalls has been a big financial toll, and not everyone has been on board.
"Our producers are spending more than $50 million on their farms to replace the infrastructure to enable this to happen," Australian Pork Limited's (APL) Andrew Spencer said.
And while the move to voluntarily phase out sow stalls by 2017 has been met with much support from different levels of government and industry, not everyone has been behind the idea.
"Doing the right thing has not always been easy," Mr Spencer told the crowd at an Agribusiness Association of Australia event in Melbourne last Thursday.
"Since the industry has taken a public position on sow stalls, we have suffered the 'Make it Possible' anti-factory farming campaign from Animals Australia."
The campaign uses ambassadors such as tennis veteran Pat Rafter, cricketer Peter Siddle and singer Missy Higgins to deliver its anti-factory-farming messages.
"We have taken the trouble to write to every one of the Animals Australia ambassadors, basically saying we respect their right to have an opinion about animal welfare issues and that we would love to be able to sit down with them and explain what the pork industry has been able to do and the things we are achieving."
Mr Spencer also offered to meet up with the ambassadors but not one replied to the proposal.
"This is undermining the industry's efforts because it sends a message to consumers that the practices we are getting rid of are still happening," he said.
"It has been disappointing and exposed these groups as welfare frauds, because basically they claim to be interested in animal welfare but they are more interested in stopping animal farming."
Mr Spencer described the continued campaigns against the industry as an important opportunity that had been lost.
"It was a chance to send a message to an industry that is moving in the right direction so that other industries could follow in our footsteps," he said.
He said pig producers (particularly in NSW) had suffered farm raids.
"Animal activists break into farms in the dead of the night and bring lights and cameras, looking for negative images to put up on websites," he said.
"These groups don't want to listen.
"The reality is that no matter what our industry does, these activists will never have anything positive to say about us."
In addition, last month the Australian Capital Territory moved to ban the use of sow stalls, which Mr Spencer described as an act of futility.
"This is despite the fact there are no pig farms in the ACT and the fact we are phasing them out anyway," he said.
Mr Spencer said he had been both "surprised and disappointed" at the reaction to the industry's moves to improve animal welfare.
"This is especially so when you remember that Australia continues to import thousands of tonnes of pork every week from countries where sow stalls continue to be used," he said.
About 150,000t of pork is imported into Australia each year - a figure of which not all consumers were aware.
Most of that comes from Europe and and North America.
"Half of all pork consumed in Australia is actually from pigs on the other side of the world," he said.
"And 70pc of bacon consumed here is made from imported pork."
Mr Spencer said the local pork industry was growing very slowly but produced only a minuscule portion of the world's produce.
Imported pork continues to be a problem - but there is an upside.
"Over the past year, pork imports reduced by 10,000t," Mr Spencer said.
"Coles has introduced a sow-stall-free standard across its branded smallgoods and it does have difficulty sourcing this overseas so we've noticed more Australian pork being used in bacon.
"That's a trend we really embrace."
And while the goal for the Australian pork industry is to build exports into countries such as China, the concern is that local Australian consumers will have to put up with increasing levels of imported ham and bacon.
However, Mr Spencer said this was not necessarily the case.
"We will have to grow our industry to a certain extent for the export market, but our first steps into China will not be of a large volume because we are seeking out that ultra-premium end," he said.
Australia leads the way
THE Australian pork industry has come a long way in realising its goal of phasing out sow stalls by 2017 but it is not quite at the end of the journey yet.
Andrew Spencer (pictured), chief executive of Australian Pork Limited (APL), a national organisation that supports and promotes the sector, said more than 60 per cent of sows were now "loose" or "group" housed.
This figure has been achieved just three years after the industry agreed to voluntarily phase out sow stalls.
"And we are on track to hit 90pc," Mr Spencer said, speaking at an Agribusiness Association of Australia event in Melbourne last week.
He said the move towards sow-stall-free production was not only encouraging for animal welfare standards but would help the industry's goal of developing a better export market.
At the moment, Australia processes about 4.8 million pigs each year, with 90pc sold onto the domestic market and the balance exported.
Mr Spencer said production was small so it made sense to chase a premium at the higher-value end of the supply chain.
"But we know that such a market won't fall in our lap," he said.
"We don't even have market access yet."
He said one of the biggest keys to opening up the market would be demonstrating why Australian pork was better.
"That is exactly what we are doing right now," Mr Spencer said.
"We are not a chief pork producer, but its important to build quality attributes into our brand to tell that story to our consumers.
"Consumers want to be assured of quality and safety - and ethical values."
He said the Australian industry's move to phase out sow stalls was a world-leading initiative.