Day 096 - 03 Mar 95 - Page 10
1 Q. You are buying others as well?
2 A. From other suppliers.
3
4 Q. That is how you come to the "vast majority" ---
5 A. That is correct.
6
7 Q. -- not being part of your system?
8 A. Correct.
9
10 MS. STEEL: How many other suppliers would you buy those pigs
11 from?
12 A. Approximately 80 to 100, something like that.
13
14 Q. So it is about two or three per cent that are from Freedom
15 Food suppliers?
16 A. No. Our Freedom Food supply is approximately,
17 including our own pigs -----
18
19 Q. No, talking about outside suppliers.
20 A. About five per cent.
21
22 Q. About five per cent, right.
23 A. But it is only fair to point out Freedom Food was only
24 launched last July, so there have not been many farmers
25 that have had the chance to join the scheme. They are now
26 queuing up to join.
27
28 Q. Where are those suppliers based, not the company run
29 -- what did you call them, "co-operative" previously you
30 called them or something.
31 A. Which ones are you talking about?
32
33 Q. The ones you buy from outside just to slaughter.
34 A. We buy them from other producers.
35
36 Q. Where from, though?
37 A. 98 per cent of them would be in East Anglia.
38 Occasionally, we will have a load from Yorkshire.
39
40 Q. So they would be transported on lorries to the slaughter
41 plant then?
42 A. Yes.
43
44 MR. MORRIS: In East Anglia you buy from, say, 80 suppliers or
45 something. Is that most of the suppliers in East Anglia?
46 When you need them, you contact them and buy in from them?
47 A. No, there are many more suppliers than that -- many
48 more.
49
50 Q. What, double the number or treble?
51 A. I could not tell you, but Yorkshire is the largest --
52 has the largest pig population in the UK, Suffolk has the
53 second largest and Norfolk has the third largest, so we are
54 right amongst them.
55
56 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do they vary enormously in size?
57 A. What, the pigs?
58
59 Q. No, the suppliers.
60 A. The suppliers, yes.
