The poultry sector has called for action after a 2 Sisters Food Group processing site ceased production due to a lack of water.
The site in Willand, Devon, which processes between 900,000 and one million chickens every week, has not been operational for most of yesterday and all of today due to the lack of water.
“Water is essential to every stage of our operation, including those relating to legally required hygiene and food safety procedures,” said a 2 Sisters spokesperson. “We have already reduced our water consumption by almost 30% and below this level we cannot operate the site to the required food safety and animal health and welfare requirements.”
South West Water maintains it has kept water pressure to the business above the legal minimum standard. However, The Grocer understands the business is asking SWW for increased supply while it puts mitigation efforts, including trucking in water by road, in place to restart operations.
“We are in a situation that needs immediate and urgent action,” 2 Sisters added. “We need support to restore sufficient water supply and allow operations to continue safely and responsibly, maintaining the UK food supply chain.”
The British Poultry Council has warned that this will have a significant impact.
“We believe this is an entirely avoidable situation and hope that South West Water will do the right thing for the hundreds of thousands of birds that are affected by their action,” the inudstry body said in a statement. “These birds may end up being slaughtered on farm and never enter the food chain, which piles waste upon carelessness by the water company.”
BPC has expressed concern that that situation may be replicated across the country when other water companies “see they can act with impunity”.
“We appreciate the difficulties in managing a dwindling water supply, but feel that access to water for the purposes of livestock welfare and food supply should be prioritised by the government, in the same way that carbon dioxide is prioritised,” it added.
It has asked Defra ministers to get involved and set the prioritisation but it is understood that only ‘severe drought’ conditions will allow ministers to intervene.
“While we wait birds are experiencing unnecessary suffering,” BPC said.
With no significant rain forecast for at least the next week, the situation is likely to continue.
South West Water said: “We fully recognise the importance of animal welfare and appreciate the operational challenges faced by the company.”
The water company added it had made extensive efforts to engage the business before action was taken and it was continuing to have daily conversations with 2 Sisters Food Group.
“As a temporary measure, we have acted quickly to respond to three requests from the company to provide an additional 1.4 million litres of water per day to enable them to process all birds on site and in the immediate supply chain, and to implement their business continuity plan,” it said.
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