"It wouldn't take much for you know... maybe some of the customers based in Auckland, [sic] continue to be shut down... all of a sudden, that could create an oversupply of pigs due to the reduced demand," he said.
David Baines said commercial piggeries typically supplied pigs to market on a weekly basis and couldn't adapt easily.
At this time of year cold storage in New Zealand is largely taken up with frozen Christmas hams, so finding extra space at such short notice could be difficult, he said.
"The farmers have got a similar problem, that most farms don't have capacity to hold more than an extra week's worth of pigs on farm."
Baines said if the scale of the oversupply was such that the sector needed government support, it would communicate that quickly to the Government.
"There's still potential for us to fall out of balance and the need for, maybe, some urgent assistance from government."
- RNZ
