August 9, 2006

British poultry industry hopes to self-regulate to reduce costs
 

Three of the biggest poultry groups in the UK: The National Farmers' Union, British Poultry Council and the British Egg Industry Council are calling for a three-year moratorium on regulatory fees for the new Integrated Pollution, Prevention and Control regulations for poultry farmers. 

The poultry groups said the industry can self-regulate and carry out independent inspections for the new environmental regulations. Since the government normally recoups the cost of such inspections and other measures from taxes on the poultry sector, allowing self regulation would save costs for an industry already overburdened with financial demands, they said.

The poultry industry has actively responded to consumer demand and farmers have invested capital in their farms to meet the environmental demands within the IPPC, the three poultry groups said in a joint statement.

In a year of challenging conditions such as that posed by bird flu and with years of downward price pressure, farmers would not be able to absorb regulatory fees, the statement said.

The poultry meat industry estimates bird flu has cost £58m this year, despite the fact that no bird flu outbreaks had been detected in any British poultry farms.

NFU poultry board chairman Charles Bourns said the groups would work with the Government to reduce costs to the farmer and continue to deliver high quality poultry produce to the British consumer.