The forum was formed just over a year ago to tackle the long-term problems affecting the red meat industry in the UK and to encourage the development of a world class sector in this country. Three working parties working to this brief came up with 10 recommendations that were unveiled at a major conference in March and since then a team at the Meat and Livestock Commission has been given the task of turning the proposals into pilot schemes. Programme manager Dr Martin Grantley-Smith, who is leading the team, says it has decided to fast-track three of the proposals: l rolling out a system for benchmarking livestock producers to enable them to compare their performances and spread best practice l introducing the PROBE benchmarking technique, which has been developed by the London Business School and IBM, and has been used successfully in other industries l Initiate value chain analysis in the red meat supply chain. While the first two will concentrate on the supplier end of the industry the third will involve studying the full supply chain. Grantley-Smith says the value chain analysis will be carried out by a team from Cardiff Business School who will be walking the supply chain and looking to identify areas where major cost savings could be introduced. He says two national chains have already been identified to take part but the project will also be looking at a range of supply chains, including regional chains involving smaller suppliers and retailers, and niche areas, such as organic produce. Grantley-Smith hopes that by this time next year the first results of the pilot schemes should be available. They are intended to help farmers and other businesses in the red meat supply chain share best practice where it will help the British industry as a whole, without compromising areas where individual companies are in competition. Communicating the results to the rest of the industry will be one of the key challenges and Grantley-Smith envisages seminars, regional conferences and master classes where those who have taken part will be able to give testimony to their peers about the benefits of the work. The forum will also shortly be setting up its own web site. Grantley-Smith makes the point that the work of the forum has been supported by all sections of the supply chain and has been embraced by the industry in Scotland and Wales as well as in England. He says it has received good support from the supermarkets, and the devolved industry groups in Wales and Scotland have also shown interest in taking part. While the forum has secured funding for some proposals, including £1.5m from the DTI, its full recommendations have been costed at £5m and some gaps still remain in funding. Forum chairman Peter Barr comments: "We are fast tracking the three projects which could have the greatest impact and assistance to the industry. "We believe the whole programme is vital to bring about the changes needed in the way we work, and we must, and we will, find the funding to deliver it all." {{FOCUS SPECIALS }}