Questor share tip: Pork group Cranswick still brings home the bacon Cranswick 800p-12½ Questor says HOLD The soaring price of grains have been having their impact on the entire food chain, as they are the basic feed stock of animals such as pigs. Pork products group Cranswick has therefore been seeing cost inflation - and that's why the shares have been weak of late. However, this week's update showed Cranswick has been able to pass on some of the costs to supermarkets - sending its shares up 10pc on Monday. Cranswick makes pies, sausages and packaged pork products for supermarket groups, and its ranges include Jamie Oliver and WeightWatchers. Food price inflation is not over yet, with grain prices still working their way through the system. There are also new European Union rules on animal welfare which come into effect on January 1, which some fear could increase industry costs. John Rogers, J Sainbury's finance director, recently told Questor that he expected there were still food-price rises ahead, and animal genetics group Genus has been warning for some time that there will be a slowdown in its sale of pigs because of high feed costs. However, Mark Bottomley, Cranswick's finance director, said that there were signs of pig-price stabilisation and he did not expect a spike in the price of hogs before Christmas. In the six months to September, revenues rose by 6pc to £418.6m and pre-tax profits soared 21pc to £22.5m. However, when the recent acquisition of Kingston Foods is stripped out, profits were up 5pc. This is a good result. The interim dividend was raised to 9.4p from 9p and it will be paid on January 25. The company continues to look at new markets. It is now shipping between 20 and 25 containers of meat, weighing about 2,000 tonnes, to China each week. It also hopes to have an export licence to Australia by the end of the year. One of the group's competitors, Dutch group Vion, has been experiencing financial difficulties and put its UK business up for sale last week. The business has a number of factories across the UK, but is based in Livingston in Scotland. While the future of its competitor is uncertain, Cranswick is in a strong position to win new business while this rival sorts out its woes. The shares are trading on a March 2013 earnings multiple of 10.3 falling to 9.8, and yielding a prospective 3.8pc rising to 4pc. The valuation looks pretty full at this level and Questor maintains a hold.