For Westmoreland pig farmer Michael Murphy, the numbers no longer add up.

Every month, he must find $100,000 to repay a loan. Every week, he spends roughly $300,000 on feed alone. Yet the price he receives for his pigs has remained virtually unchanged for years.

Now, with the two major slaughterhouses in Sweet River and Paradise, Westmoreland, and another in Black River, St Elizabeth, still closed following Hurricane Melissa, dozens of market-ready pigs are eating into already razor-thin profits while farmers wait for processing space.