The pig sector has had to face an increase in the cost of feed, made worse by the fact that prices offered by slaughterhouses for pork have fallen in recent months by about 10 cents a kilo, as a result of a dioxin crisis in Germany which has pushed down prices in that market. The importance of the industry is crucial: pig farming accounts for 30% of Flanders' total income from agriculture.

The pig sector's response was to attack the retail sector: a distribution centre in Moorsele in West Flanders serving Lidl - a German company - was subject to a blockade, as was a meat processor in Waarschoot in East Flanders. Unsolicited, Colruyt pledged it would pay pig-farmers €5 on top of the the slaughterhouse price for each animal. And Delhaize launched a campaign to promote Belgian pork to consumers; the supermarket sells almost exclusively Belgian pork in its stores.

This week, on Monday, Flemish minister president Kris Peeters, who is also responsible for agriculture, was due to present a proposal to the European Commission to allow the EU to withdraw pork from the market and put it into storage in order to artificially create a shortage on the market, and push prices up.

The Commission's response was still not known as Flanders Today went to press. However there is a weight of support on Peeters' side - the Dutch are in favour, as, according to reports, are France, Spain, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Luxembourg, Ireland and Italy.

Meanwhile it was claimed that 58% of chickens sold for meat are resistant to four different antibiotics, which means infections caused by their bacteria are more difficult to treat. The claim comes in research by a doctoral student at Ghent University. Three out of four chickens produced in Belgium are treated with antibiotics for most of their short lives. One of the main dangers is the antibiotics-resistance of E. coli, a germ produced in the gut which contaminates much meat during the slaughtering process. If that is passed on to humans, treatment of any infection (which can be fatal) would be much harder.