NFU Poultry Board Chairman, Charles Bourns, gave an update to NFU Council on issues the board has been working on:
Welfare of Laying Hens Directive: The whole of the British egg industry has invested in the run up to the 1 January deadline when to European ban on battery cages came into force. Egg producers have spent £400m invested in enriched colony cages while the free range industry has also spent hundreds of million too. The Good Egg Guide on is now on NFUonline, this lists all companies who have confirmed they are sourcing eggs from compliant systems and we are encouraging other companies to sign up.. We've had huge buy-in from companies large and small to get signed up.
Marketplace update:
- Egg sales up 2% but value has gone down 0.2%
- Self-sufficiency has increased by 5% this year - we must focus on getting a better price for all egg producers particularly the free range sector.
- We'll need to find 25% more growing space for chicken production over the next 10 years
- Turkey sales up 7% year on year
- We don't mind high cereal prices but we don't like fluctuating prices
Next generation work: Large companies are offering apprenticeship schemes for young people from colleges. It is important that young people see the opportunities within the poultry industry and that it is a modern, dynamic industry with career opportunities for everybody.
Christmas turkey campaign - more producers than ever before (339) were listed on www.ukturkeys.co.uk, with packaging sold online for the first time. As a result, packaging sales were up 31% any income generated goes back into the packaging fund for next year’s stock and for any promotional work for seasonal turkey producers. The competition on the UK Turkeys website which ran during December had 17,000 entries.
We are also launching a recipe competition on the Love Chicken website for a Jubilee Chicken recipe.
The Board is also working on issues such as beak trimming, CAP, on-farm combustion of poultry litter, IPPC and campylobacter.
No comments have been made.