Buoyant poultry meat bosses say supermarkets are drifting back to British-produced quality product and away from value offerings from abroad.
They claim demand has been boosted by substantial below the line promotional activity made possible by a £750,000 fund created by a voluntary levy for the British Quality Chicken campaign.
The campaign is now in its second year and the fund has enabled the £3bn a year poultry meat sector to hold onto price gains at retail level achieved in the past year, even though feed costs have dropped in line with the cereals’ price slide.
Industry leaders such as James Hook, chairman and managing director of PD Hook
(Hatcheries), said they viewed the campaign as a worthwhile tool in seeing off competition.
Hook was among key industry figures putting a positive spin on the future for the British sector at the annual NFU poultry meat conference.
The shift to British quality had been led by Morrisons in the wake of its Safeway takeover, he claimed, but others were following and moving away from the value sector dominated by imports.
“There is a future for this industry but we desperately need more optimism. There are a lot of problems and there is a lot that can go wrong. But rewards can be substantial if we get it right,” he said.
There have been substantial efficiency gains throughout the industry in recent years and this had to continue, he argued. “We need to make sure everything is utilised properly and, as there are fewer of us in the business, we need to co-operate more.”
The industry also had to invest more in improving efficiency and better marketing, he said.
British consumers had taken on board the message that they should buy British chicken because of the higher production standards, which meant they could trust the product, and because it was fresh.
Vic Robertson
They claim demand has been boosted by substantial below the line promotional activity made possible by a £750,000 fund created by a voluntary levy for the British Quality Chicken campaign.
The campaign is now in its second year and the fund has enabled the £3bn a year poultry meat sector to hold onto price gains at retail level achieved in the past year, even though feed costs have dropped in line with the cereals’ price slide.
Industry leaders such as James Hook, chairman and managing director of PD Hook
(Hatcheries), said they viewed the campaign as a worthwhile tool in seeing off competition.
Hook was among key industry figures putting a positive spin on the future for the British sector at the annual NFU poultry meat conference.
The shift to British quality had been led by Morrisons in the wake of its Safeway takeover, he claimed, but others were following and moving away from the value sector dominated by imports.
“There is a future for this industry but we desperately need more optimism. There are a lot of problems and there is a lot that can go wrong. But rewards can be substantial if we get it right,” he said.
There have been substantial efficiency gains throughout the industry in recent years and this had to continue, he argued. “We need to make sure everything is utilised properly and, as there are fewer of us in the business, we need to co-operate more.”
The industry also had to invest more in improving efficiency and better marketing, he said.
British consumers had taken on board the message that they should buy British chicken because of the higher production standards, which meant they could trust the product, and because it was fresh.
Vic Robertson
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