NFU livestock team - raising the profile of the red meat industry

It’s the end of my first and very interesting month as livestock adviser and fortunately summer 2019 has so far has been kind to us. Favourable grass growing conditions have seen cattle and sheep finished earlier. Cattle throughputs are down but carcass weights up showing an improvement in productivity throughout the sector. However, with the uncertainty of Brexit earlier on in the year, and now the possibility of a no deal exit with new Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the end of October, the beef industry in particular has found itself in turbulent waters.

With the beef price being around 40p/kg less that this time last year the NFU has been forthright in taking farmers concerns to processors, retailers, Defra and AHDB to help find solutions. The team visited the Great Yorkshire Show and spoke to retails and Defra ministers to raise the profile of the issue and get their take on current prices. Consumer purchasing habits, cold storage and Brexit were all topics discussed. Read the full briefing here.

Our NFU food chain team visited the Royal Welsh where they sat down with retailers to discuss what they are doing to promote red meat and future product development. Both are topics that will be crucial for the industry if we want to continue to compete with the increasing number of plant based products we are seeing enter the market. To read more about their discussions please find the briefing here.

One of our immediate priorities will be to continue to raise the priority of the red meat market to government and stressing the impacts that a no-deal Brexit would have on the market. We will be meeting with government agencies and industry to discuss what a sheep aid package would look like as we will be at the height of the lamb market come 31 October. Meetings are being organised with a financial-technology company and AHDB to look at innovative ways of combating price volatility in UK deadweight livestock sales.

Keeping on the pressure, NFU Vice President Stuart Roberts recently urged processors to contribute towards effective campaigns to promote British beef by committing themselves to match AHDB’s levy investment pound for pound. “The NFU will continue to work with AHDB, retailers and processors to establish a unified and proactive approach to product promotion.” To read the full press release please click here.