Logic points to producers and plants having to follow the market trend'
Further expensive and politically unpopular restructuring of the slaughtering industry, involving closing many more plants, is an essential and inevitable consequence of changes in the meat markets.
This was the blunt message from the leadership of the British Meat Federation, the main organisation representing abattoir operators and primary wholesalers, at its annual conference.
The discussion paper put forward by BMF chief executive Peter Scott surprised delegates with its aggressive dissection of key issues.
In particular, Scott's analysis challenged head on the widely held belief in a need for more regionalisation or even localisation of meat processing and marketing, and for smaller farms with less intensive production systems.
While acknowledging the growing demand for regional produce, Scott's paper declared: "Calls for greater localisation of the meat industry fly in the face of developing technology such as improved transport for livestock, and the ability to add value to red meat."
Moreover, Scott argued: "The food manufacturing and retail sectors are consolidating into fewer, larger companies, and market driven logic points to livestock producers and meat plants having to follow the market trend."
Scott is well known in the industry for his belief the slaughtering sector was only part way through necessary consolidation when BSE erupted, and the need for continued rationalisation would resurface eventually.
Nevertheless, his latest assertion was brutal: "FMD has highlighted the fact that a significant percentage of demand for red meat can be processed through fewer than half the licensed red meat GB slaughterhouses and has underlined the obvious problem of overcapacity."
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