VION Food Group -Reconstruction Law
After the outbreak of the pig plague in 1997, the Reconstruction Law was created in 1998, and enforced in 2002, to restructure the sector and rural areas in which intensive pig farming takes place. Amongst others, the law created the pig rights system (for each pig held, pig places are necessary; if farmers want to expand, they will have to buy pig rights from other farmers). The government has bought pig rights from farmers wanting to exit the sector, with the goal to reduce expansion of the pork sector.