New Zealand meat supplier Mainland, which controls over 60% of the country’s bacon and ham supply, has announced that it intends to implement a price hike next month that could mean consumers will have to pay over a NZ$1 more for their packs of pig meat. Hefty hikes are also likely for Mainland’s lamb products, and the price of a ham leg could rise by 46%.
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A subsidiary of the dairy mega-merger company GlobalCo, Mainland produces the Kiwi, Frasers, Top Hat, and Huttons brands of bacon. It blamed the proposed price hike on a shortage of domestic pig meat and soaring prices for imported meat, a result of the foot and mouth crisis and the spread of swine fever in Europe.
Supermarkets responded to the news angrily but said if alternative suppliers cannot be found they will have to pass the extra costs onto consumers.
