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NPA launches 'The Pork Report' campaign

5th Dec 2018 / By Alistair Driver

It's here... 

The Pork Report

The NPA has launched a new campaign putting the spotlight on how retailers are supporting the Great British pork industry in the run up to Christmas.

With the help of NPA members and supporters, ‘The Pork Report’ will highlight both the good and the bad when it comes to how our retailers source, display and label their pork.

It will be a social media-led campaign, linked by #ThePorkReport, during which we will be posting pictures taken in retail stores right across the country and encouraging producer members and the general public to get involved and share what they find.

NPA chief executive Zoe Davies said: “Following a number of calls from members and increasing murmurings within the industry about the apparent lack of demand for Red Tractor pigs and cheap pork flooding in from the EU, we have taken action and launched this new campaign.

“The concept behind it is simple – to have a very visual display of current retailer support for British pork, how the products are presented, and who is actively trying to promote (or not!) our beloved product.

“And we need your support to make it work!”

Here’s how it works

NPA staff have already been into store taking photographs of pork on display at retail outlets across the country. See below for some examples.

A selection of these will be posted on the Great British Pork Facebook and Twitter pages (@GBpork).

We are going to be featuring a different supermarket each day, going through them alphabetically, starting with Aldi and Asda.

For each retailer we will be posting images in relation to some or all of the following:

New Product Development: Are there any new products on display? Are they British? 

Prominence for Pork: How much pork is on display in comparison to other proteins?

British or imported: Is the fresh pork British? And what about the other pork products?

Clear display and labels: What state are the shelves in? Do they look appealing? Is the display clear about what is and isn’t British? And is the labelling unambiguous and clear?

Christmas offering: Is the retailer making a special effort to back British pork in its Christmas offering?

How you can get involved

You can either:

  • Post the pictures on Twitter using #ThePorkReport and tag the store and @GBpork. Also mention the store, location and date you took them and why you are posting the picture and what it shows.
  • Alternatively, you can email the pictures to  including all the above information, so we can post them.

Zoe added: “If we make enough noise about this, hopefully retailers will listen to their customers and start to rethink how they market their pork category – it’s not only us that could benefit!”

Here are some examples of what we have already posted on the @GBpork Twitter feed:

The first store we visited was Aldi. In this tweet, we looked at New Product Development. It was great to see new products being offered all using fresh British Pork, including this: 

 
PR Aldi steak
 
Aldi is committed to 100%  🇬🇧British Fresh Pork joints in stores, although we'd love to see more fresh British Gammon joints! More here

PR Aldi gammon
 
Our Pork Reporter found one downside in Aldi stores – messy shelves. But there is a twist... 
 
Aldi shelves
 
... Aldi immediately responded with the following: "Hi there, thanks for letting us know about this. Please can you provide us with details of the branch you visited so that we can flag your feedback with the manager there? Thanks." 
 
We told them and they are on it... making a difference already!
 
This is just the start. We look forward to seeing and receiving your #ThePorkReport snaps.