The food processor announced last week that they would be increasing their charges for processing beef and lamb as of yesterday (Monday April 27) citing the recent and dramatic increase in waste disposal and rendering charges, particularly Specified Risk Material (SRM) as the reason.
Charges will increase to £19.20 for processing a beef animal and to £1.95 for a lamb. St Merryn claim they have held back on implementing these increased charges for as long as they could but challenging trading conditions mean that they must recover some of the increased costs levied on their businesses.
Charles Sercombe, NFU livestock board chairman, said beef producers will be bitterly disappointed as this cost is outside of their control and comes on the back of 11 consecutive weeks of falling beef prices as a result of lacklustre consumer demand and the challenge from imported product, made more competitive by the weak euro.
“Farmers will be extremely frustrated that just a few months after the NFU and the BMPA launched the processor code of practice, we have a signatory to the code making changes to their terms and conditions without providing their producer suppliers with the 12 weeks’ notice they had promised,” said Mr Sercombe.
“We understand that St Merryn held off increasing their charges when others had already increased theirs some months ago. We assume that the renderers would be talking to processors highlighting the pressures on animal by-product markets, if so these challenges should have been communicated to farmers; ideally within the 12-week window.
“This lack of transparency is totally against the letter and spirit of the processor code, and is the last thing we need when we are trying to build trust and greater transparency within the beef supply chain – which is yet again facing pressure on farm gate prices. We ask the renderers and retailers to work within the spirit of the code and communicate changes to their terms and conditions to suppliers in good time.”