Sir; I wonder if others noted the hypocrisy behind the story in The Grocer last week, Spain tipped to become major supplier in the EU' (Meat, p27. Part of the article quoted from a Bord Bia report: The growing significance of Spain as one of the major pigmeat producers can be explained by environmental and health regulations impacting on the production practices of other competing northern EU states.' In other words, many of our retailers and consumers are quite happy to sell and eat pigmeat produced under welfare, hygiene and food safety practices no longer allowed in many northern EU states, and, in particular, in the UK. On the opposite page was a pigmeat price report claiming that reduced availability' ...(of UK pig supplies ­ as a result of uneconomic returns to producers for the last four years) ... weakened, rather than underpinned the (domestic) price premium'. In other words, as supply of UK product reduces, many buyers feel less constrained in seeking alternative, albeit inferior pigmeat. Hypocrisy reigns and prospers. Philip Richardson Manor Farm Downham Wymondham Norfolk {{LETTERS }}