May 12, 2011

UK supermarket Tesco to stock US beef

UK beef producers are disappointed at UK supermarket giant Tesco's plan to stock beef imported from the US instead of home-grown beef.

The UK's biggest supermarket Tesco plans to bring in Black Angus beef, which is slightly cheaper than domestically-produced Aberdeen. But farming groups say that UK should support the British industry by sourcing home-produced beef instead.

NFU livestock board chairman Alistair Mackintosh said, "The beef industry has gone through a difficult number of years. We have seen the beef price recently break through the GBP3 (US$4.9) per kg mark which is encouraging, but this still falls somewhat short of covering the production costs."

The industry held its first Great Beef Week to coincide with the Royal Wedding earlier this year and its success showed that consumers' potential to buy British beef. Macintosh said, "It is therefore disappointing that some retailers see the need to undermine producers by sourcing foreign beef.

Meanwhile, the latest forecasts reveal that the red meat industry show positive trends for the future.

Statistics put together for the recent Outlook conference organised by English Beef and Lamb Executive (Eblex), the British Pig Executive (Bpex) and DairyCo showed beef and sheep meat prices are on the rise.

Beef prices have recently broken through the GBP3 (US$4.9) per kg barrier for the first time and are expected to continue rising in the next 18 months because of tightening supplies in the EU.

Beef exports have increased 25% in value terms last year and sheep exports rose by 1%.