FARMING leaders are challenging abattoirs to explain why waste charges have more than doubled in recent weeks.

The NFU is now calling on those processors that have increased their charges to fully explain the variation.

NFU livestock board chairman, Charles Sercombe, said the picture is not consistent with the majority of processors managing volatility within processed commodity markets and not passing costs back to farmers.

However, others have increased charges by 60 per cent, from about £3.50 an animal to £7.

“Waste disposal costs are quite clearly an operating cost to the processor’s business and are out of the farmer’s control.

"We are convinced that these costs should be built into the base price quoted to the farmer, in the same way as changes to the hide or fifth quarter values are,” said Mr Sercombe.

He added: “We intend to publish the NFU’s dead-weight market transparency report along with a number of recommendations early in the New Year.

“We have identified that charges vary widely between processors and we need to understand the reasons for this wide variation.

“We will be asking processors to sign up to a code of practice that requires them to provide clear information about their company’s terms and conditions of trading, and to make this available to their suppliers.