November 28, 2007

 

UK beef farmers call for help to avert possible "business shutdown"

 

 

British livestock farmers sought the help of consumers Tuesday (November 27) to help raise farm-gate prices in their meat in a bid to avert an "exodus" from the lamb and beef sector.

 

Figures from the English Beef and Lamb Executive (EBLEX) show beef farmers lost between GBP94 (US$194.4) and GBP430 per head of cattle on average in the year to March 2007, against losses of 74 to GBP425 pounds the year before.

 

Thomas Binns, Livestock Board Chairman of the National Farmers Union (NFU) in Britain, said in a statement: "Either prices must rise, or we'll see an exodus from beef and sheep production the like of which we've never seen before."

 

Binns said the difference between farmgate prices and retail prices are quite high; farmers would just want a "better share of the price".

 

A report by the UK's Competition Commission published last month said supermarkets were neither colluding nor systematically abusing producers and suppliers.

 

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) say supermarkets are the biggest supporters of British farmers with 89 percent of beef and 70 percent of lamb sold sourced from British producers.

 

But many farmers blame retailers for keeping farm-gate prices low.

 

Alistair Mackintosh, who runs a farm of 125 suckler cows and 1,200 ewes in Cumbria in northern England, said the overriding factor behind his poor profitability was retailers' ability to keep meat prices low.

 

Apart from price increases being passed back to farmers, Mackintosh said, some farms would move from red meat production into energy crops unless more money from supermarket sales reached the producer.

 

Mackintosh said he spent GBP75 pounds on feed per head of cattle and more went on preparing his animals for slaughter than he earned from selling them at the farmgate.

 

He said there is no reason for farmers to produce the meat if the situation prevails.

 

US$1 = GBP0.4840 (as of November 27)