Recent industry events have brought the processing sector to the forefront of farmers’ minds once again, with specification changes and business mergers all playing a part. It has created curiosity and heated debate within my member meetings of late.
The NFU’s work on transparency has been ongoing, with voluntary codes a key example how processors are able to demonstrate responsible and transparent business procedures. Now with the launch of NFU’s market transparency project imminent, we’re aiming to be able to benchmark and promote best practice like never before.
Having a national data set collected from farmers, we hope this will encourage processors to work with the NFU to standardise the many different payment procedures, deductions and specifications used, and remove some of the fog our livestock members continue to struggle with.
This information will give our members a better understanding of marketing options and the ability to benchmark processors. Through the project, identifying best practice such as sharing information, quick and efficient transfer of funds, and clear specifications can all be encouraged.
Of course, we also want to see positive change to practices currently commonplace. Through recent discussions, it is apparent legislation should not be seen as the only way to address some of these issues. Rounding down and carcase specification for lambs in particular is a concern, especially when talks of video image analysis moving into lamb could see further uncertainty and the potential for mistrust to creep into the supply chain. Something we’re all keen to avoid.