British pigs farmers are to warn MPs on the House of Commons Agriculture Committee that their industry faces an unprecedented crisis.

Pig producers are losing �6m every week and they say it is largely because they are having to produce pork to a higher standard than their competitors overseas.

The few weeks before Christmas are usually the most profitable time for pig farmers, as demand for ham and gammon reaches an annual peak. But this year farmers are receiving barely two-thirds as much for their pigs as they cost to produce.

Paul Cheale, who owns an abattoir in Essex, specialises in killing sows.

There is usually a healthy demand for the meat from German sausage producers, but this year he says chronic over-production has kept prices ruinously low.

Farmers lose up to �20 a pig

Each of the carcasses hanging in his cold room represents a loss of between �15 and �20 to the farmer.

Some are so desperate to cut their losses they are sending sows to the abattoir which are in-pig and only a few weeks from giving birth.

"A number of farmers can't afford to feed their herds," says Mr Cheale. "Unfortunately herds are coming in, with sows in pig. They can't afford to keep them. Every day that passes they lose more money."

The sows make about �40, less than a third of their price a year ago.

Worse still, with the sows go farmers' hopes of restocking their farms.

Paul Cheale: "They can't afford to keep their animals'"

Mr Cheale describes farmers' plight as tragic. "Many have their whole life's work threatened by the present situation, which is something I've never seen in 40 years of meat wholesaling."

The trouble is that British pig farmers are struggling to compete in an over-supplied market. Legislation coming into force next month will make it illegal for British pigs to be kept in stalls or on tethers.

Nor can they be fed on meal containing any part of the pig. Instead farmers have to pay almost �3 for every pig they slaughter to have unused offal and bone disposed of.

But while British pigs enjoy some of the best conditions anywhere, they are costing more to produce.

Farmer Steve Green: "We're being crucified"

Steven Green, a pig farmer in Essex, says: "We've gone to great expense to build up our standards which we feel are not being followed in parts of Europe.

"Their pig meat is coming in, plus the strength of the pound is giving them an advantage, and we're being crucified in the UK at the moment".

MPs on the Commons Agriculture Committee will be told by pig producers that they must have more to show for the �250m they have been forced to invest in higher standards of animal welfare.

They want the government to pay the cost of disposing of offal and to put pressure on retailers to insist on the same standards of production in imported meat that they get from British farmers.

On 12 August, thousands of farmers converged on Immingham docks on the Humber to protest at the amount of cheap pork and bacon that is coming into the country. Four months later, they say the crisis in their industry is deeper than ever.