Following news that one of Scotland largest poultry producers is cutting output, NFU Scotland has made calls for fairer prices within the poultrymeat and egg sectors.

NFU Scotland understands that Grampian Country Foods are being forced to cut their capacity, due to poor trading conditions, strong competition supplying the retail and manufacturing sector and rising costs. In addition, they face constant pressure from supermarkets and cheap imports.

It has recently been announced that a group of thirteen business leaders, including Tesco executives, plan to meet with Tony Blair in what appears to be an attempt to promote their green credentials whilst at the same time urging him to take tougher action on climate change. Ironically, one simple way in which the large food retailers could do their bit to combat climate change is to cease importing unnecessarily from abroad, clocking up excess ‘food miles’, when quality produce is grown on their doorsteps.

In addition, foreign imports frequently fail to meet the same welfare and environmental standards that producers in the UK are obliged to meet and yet they are still allowed into the UK and to undercut home-grown produce.

Jim McLaren, NFU Scotland Vice-President, said:

“Like all within the food supply chain, poultrymeat and egg producers have faced increased input costs over recent months and years and yet the supermarkets simply dictate the price they will be paying, allowing for no negotiation.

“Egg consumption, in particular, has increased recently and so laws of economics ought to dictate that prices rise. This has not been the case because the large retailers simply refuse to pay. They seem quite happy to make a negative impact on the climate and to threaten the future of UK producers, by buying cheap imports instead. They also seem more than happy to sell these imports to their customers who are buying, often unwittingly, produce from overseas which doesn’t meet the welfare and environmental standards met by UK producers.

“It is time that poultrymeat and egg producers are paid a fair price for what they produce and that consumers are no longer sold cheap, and often inferior, foreign imports at the expense of UK producers.”

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