Schwäbisch Hall Producers Community (BESH)

BESH is a farmers’ association that was founded in 1988 to market the meat of the breed Schwäbisch Hällisches pig (SH). The SH pigs are renowned for their high meat quality. The association consists of 1,400 members. The whole value chain from herd book management, pig breeding, fattening, slaughtering, meat processing, through to retailing  is managed by BESH. The marketing of the pork is a key competence of BESH.

 

BESH is also involved in research on rare breeds and meat quality. This includes research about estimating organic breeding value of the pigs, meat quality and pig keeping systems under high animal welfare conditions. BESH also has rich experience in supporting farmers in the production of high quality food and implement best practices on their farms. Past work focused on enabling farmers to utilise the autochthonous breed “Schwäbisch Hällisches” pig within a sustainable high-welfare production system.

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Role in the project

BESH represents the actor group “Schwäbisch Hall Producers” and also leads the ‘pigmeat’ transition network. BESH will also use its access to the whole value chain to support studies with data from across the value chain.

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Staff involved

• Christoph Zimmer

• Astrid Heid

• Rudolf Bühler

• Fritz Wolf

• André Hutzenlaub