UK poultry sector in urgent need of investment

Rising costs and an uneven share of retail margins has left the UK poultry sector in urgent need of investment, a new report warned.

The report said while retailers have taken about 50 percent of the retail margins from chickens, producers have received less than half of that.

Rising production costs also meant that farmers have been incurring losses over the past four years, and the National Farmers Union (NFU) has called for urgent action to half the industry's decline.

The NFU will be meeting retailers in the coming weeks to discuss the findings of the report and highlight the need for better prices to help producers reinvest in their businesses.

The report is written by estate agent company Savills, and commissioned by the NFU and UK broiler growers.