David Brown cannot remember a worse time for the pig industry in Northern Ireland. In the past year he has seen fellow farmers reduced to tears because they cannot afford to buy feed for their pigs. Men who prided themselves on paying their bills on time have had to learn how to obtain credit and deal with debt.

"I'm further back now than when I went into the business 22 years ago," says Mr Brown. "It's a nightmare at the minute. I can see many farmers going to an early grave because of the pressure."

For two years pig farmers in the North have been losing money on each pig produced. Prices reached a low of 49p per kilo last year but remain depressed at their current value of 73p per kilo. This is 20p below the price the Ulster Farmers' Union believe is required for producers to return to profit. Repeated forecasts of a price rise have failed to materialise, leaving farmers with huge debts and many predicting the death of the pig industry. The strength of sterling bears much of the blame. It has made imports cheaper, but a major cause of the crisis was the fire at the Lovell and Christmas Processing plant in Ballymoney, Co Antrim, in June 1998.

The plant processed 40 per cent of the pigs in Northern Ireland and the huge backlog caused when the plant went offline cost farmers thousands of pounds in extra feed.

By September 1998 farmers were losing £27 per pig produced and, although a government welfare scheme threw a lifeline to farmers late last year, there has been more bad news since. The imposition of welfare regulations by the government on January 1st was the final straw for many local farmers, according to the chairman of the Ulster Pork and Bacon Forum, Mr Robert Overend.

"In the past farmers earned extra cash by selling offal and bone meal but the new restrictions mean farmers have to pay £1 per pig to have this removed," he says. "Only credit from banks and feed farms have kept us in business until now."

The farmers' Union estimates that pig farmers owe £23 million sterling to banks and another £22 million to feed firms. They are concerned that banks are now demanding a start to repayments, and feed firms are switching to cash on delivery.