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Critical that action had not been taken earlier to prevent a glut, Gilowska said agriculture minister Andrej Lepper should have known that there will be a problem.

Nevertheless the Polish government will buy 10,000 tons now and will make further purchases through the spring up to 80,000 tonnes. It will have to go into reserves to finance the spend.

The European Union has told Poland that public support of meat prices is contrary to European Union rules and it will investigate the matter. But Poland says it is just increasing national meat reserves.

Removing cheap Polish meat from the market can only be helpful to continental producers who are currently suffering low prices, which in turn are impacting on prices received by British producers.

Rise in New Zealand pork consumption

Last year New Zealanders ate a record 20.6kg of pork each, according to the New Zealand Pork Board’s annual report. This is half a kilo more per person than in 2005.

This increased consumption has sucked in record levels of imported pork. Forty percent of total consumption is now imported.

Last year almost 45 percent of pork imports were from Australia, 27 percent from Canada, 18 percent from America, 9 percent from Sweden and the rest from China, Thailand and others.

However, New Zealanders prefer home-grown pork, says the New Zealand Pork Board. It will be seeking to raise public awareness of the home product and to ensure home-produced pork is consumers' first choice.

ThePigSite News Desk