The European Union will stockpile pork in an effort to prop up its falling price, EU agriculture commissioner Dacian Ciolos said on Saturday in Berlin at a meeting of world farming officials.

Pork sales in Germany, Europe's biggest market, have plunged since a dioxin scare this month.

"We have to try to prevent a price slump," said Ciolos. "The EU is ready to adopt the measures it has available to it."

Speaking on the second day of Green Week, said by Berlin organisers to be the world's biggest agricultural and pastoral show, he said Brussels would offer cash incentives to farmers to stockpile the pork in cool stores and only sell it when prices recover.

Ciolos said the commission would announce the move soon. He would raise it with farm ministers today. He spoke at a conference of farm ministers and other officials from more than 50 nations.

German pork prices have slipped 25% to à1.12/kg at the farm gate since at least one farm was found to have pigs that were over the EU dioxin limit.

Thousands of Germans demonstrated near the showgrounds in Berlin on Saturday against what they termed "factory farming".

About 50 organic farmers, among them a beekeeper, drove a convoy of tractors through Berlin to denounce commercial farming methods and genetically modified crops.

However, a survey published on Friday indicated that most Germans cared more about the price of their food, with three-quarters of those questioned calling for advances in conventional agriculture in order to keep food costs low.

Just 21% insisted on more organic production methods, according to the survey carried out by pollsters Emnid.