Among those present at the talks were NFU President Meurig Raymond, Stephen James, President of NFU Cymru, NFU livestock board chairman Charles Sercombe, together with John Loughlin, Chairman of the New Zealand meat industry association and Sir Lockwood Smith, New Zealand High Commissioner.
NFU President Meurig Raymond opened the meeting talking about the challenge of declining consumption both here in the UK and in Europe, and the poor profitability / market returns for the UK red meat sector.
John Loughlin explained that the New Zealand sheep flock had declined from a high of 70million to 28million due to a change of land use towards dairy, but also horticulture, forestry and wine production. “The loss of meat processing had resulted in many plant closures which had a massive impact on many rural communities”, he said.
One of the main messages discussed was the importance of working together to promote a complimentary fresh lamb offer using seasonality to stimulate demand. Lamb is an under marketed category and new marketing initiatives are desperately needed, with a focus on health, nutrition.
The NFU team also heard that New Zealand industry is encouraged that UK Government has said that as a result of Brexit no one trading partner will be worse off or conversely gain from Brexit.
Sir Lockwood Smith said: “The EU will not want to harm the Irish economy, and that a framework that starts with the status quo and leads towards an FTA with the EU must be our goal.”