The pig industry’s latest survey of supermarket shelves shows retailers have increased stocking of British-farmed pork, ham and sausages over the past 12 months.

The Porkwatch survey, conducted every two months, records the number of product lines that supermarkets allocate to British pork and pork products. National Pig Association welcomed the increase, which the industry group said displays greater commitment to British farmers.

All retailers have increased their British lines in some categories and some have improved across the board, selling more British pork, bacon, ham and sausages.

NPA manager Lizzie Press commented on Wednesday, "These results show that retailers are listening to their customers. We are delighted with the current trend because it is allowing pig farmers to reinvest in their businesses after three very difficult years caused by high feed costs."

NPA chair Richard Longthorp added that the recent horsemeat scandal "has proved a game-changer".

The industry survey, conducted by levy-board EBLEX, revealed:

• M&S, Aldi and Budgens have more British pork, bacon, ham and sausage lines than at this time last year.
• Waitrose has more British pork, ham and sausage lines, and has maintained its number of British bacon lines.
• Morrisons has more British pork, bacon and sausage lines and the Co-op has more British pork, ham and sausage lines.
• Sainsbury’s has more British ham lines and has increased its British pork lines by 19 percent to 100 percent.
• Tesco, Asda and Lidl all show an improvement in their number of ham and sausage lines.

Overall British ham shelf facings are up 3.9 percent year-on-year, whilst sausages are up 3.5 percent and pork is up 1.5 percent (from an already high base). But bacon is down 7.4 percent and NPA will be urging retailers to improve their number of British bacon shelf facings in 2014.

Among the country's major supermarket retailers, Waitrose and M&S both stock almost 100 percent British pork and pork products.