May 31, 2007
 

UK beef farmers call for fair pricing

Price-cutting by meat processors will destroy the red meat industry in England, warns an industry insider.

British National Farmers' Union (NFU) vice president Paul Temple called for a shared cooperation between producers, abattoirs, and retailers to ride out market squalls and move the sector towards sustainable prices to provide a fair return for some of the finest products in the world.

Speaking to NFU members at the Royal Bath and West Show at Sheptonne Mallet, Temple, also a cattle farmer in Yorkshire, has sharply criticised the price cut announced this week by one of the South West's leading regional abattoirs, which he said was not justified by the underlying market position.

He said abattoirs should be working with retailers to build a platform by lifting prices to close the huge shortfall that exists between market returns and production costs.

He added the abattoir sector tends to take advantage of any and every short-term gap in the market to drop prices to producers and should this situation persist, it will be "the kiss of death" for the whole livestock sector.

Temple referred to the report produced recently by the NFU on the threats to beef and lamb production in England, called "Warning-industry and countryside at risk" wherein it argues the decline in beef and lamb production could accelerate rapidly, with disastrous consequences for the economy and the environment, if the entire production chain does not unite in finding long-term contractual arrangements geared to creating sustainable supply chains.

According to the Meat and Livestock Commission, cattle slaughter in UK fell by 13 percent in the week ended May 13 compared with the same period last year. Household purchases of fresh and frozen beef rose by one percent in the 12-week period ended April 22. The difference between the price paid to the beef producer and the average retail price of beef widened by over three per cent in April 2007 as compared with the same month last year.