Food minister Lord Whitty has come under attack from poultry bosses who accuse him of writing off the UK sector.
Whitty’s tough stance during the British Poultry Council’s annual lunch found little favour with the sector leaders.
In his speech, Lord Whitty said the industry faced some profound challenges.
Regulation, particularly environmental measures, was likely to increase and pressure from competition was only set to get tougher.
And from the WTO there was an increasing move towards trade liberalisation.
James Hook, MD of leading supplier PD Hook, told Whitty: “You could summarise what you’ve said with ‘Lord Whitty writes off UK poultry industry’.”
“If you believe what he’s saying, he’s telling us UK poultry is going to be imported. I disagree, I think consumers want to buy British chicken.”
However, Whitty said market conditions would mean a move into added value production was vital for UK producers.
“In that sense, the UK industry is well placed as it is one of the most advanced and innovative in Europe.”
Meanwhile, BPC chairman John Maunder called for action to be taken on country of origin labelling. “New technology is being developed right now to super-chill chicken in Thailand and Brazil and ship it to the EU to be sold as fresh, but does the consumer expect fresh chicken to have been on a boat for four to five weeks?”
Another threat was highlighted by BPC chief executive Peter Bradnock. With EU enlargement, there were worries over stockpiling.
“A number of the new countries have been importing and storing poultry meat from third countries which are not eligible to export into the UK.
“The worry is that this meat will come out of storage and be trucked into the old EU countries.”
Whitty’s tough stance during the British Poultry Council’s annual lunch found little favour with the sector leaders.
In his speech, Lord Whitty said the industry faced some profound challenges.
Regulation, particularly environmental measures, was likely to increase and pressure from competition was only set to get tougher.
And from the WTO there was an increasing move towards trade liberalisation.
James Hook, MD of leading supplier PD Hook, told Whitty: “You could summarise what you’ve said with ‘Lord Whitty writes off UK poultry industry’.”
“If you believe what he’s saying, he’s telling us UK poultry is going to be imported. I disagree, I think consumers want to buy British chicken.”
However, Whitty said market conditions would mean a move into added value production was vital for UK producers.
“In that sense, the UK industry is well placed as it is one of the most advanced and innovative in Europe.”
Meanwhile, BPC chairman John Maunder called for action to be taken on country of origin labelling. “New technology is being developed right now to super-chill chicken in Thailand and Brazil and ship it to the EU to be sold as fresh, but does the consumer expect fresh chicken to have been on a boat for four to five weeks?”
Another threat was highlighted by BPC chief executive Peter Bradnock. With EU enlargement, there were worries over stockpiling.
“A number of the new countries have been importing and storing poultry meat from third countries which are not eligible to export into the UK.
“The worry is that this meat will come out of storage and be trucked into the old EU countries.”
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