Opinion: Action not talk needed on beef crisis

Talk is cheap – it’s what you do with it that really matters. That is how many might sum up this week’s beef summit meeting with the supply chain.

Getting retailers, processors, abattoirs and livestock producers around a table to discuss the price crash is a positive step forward.

If a code of conduct emerges from it and leads to improved transparency and better practice, then let’s see it operating as soon as possible.

See also: Beef summit: Farmers and processors to work on industry code

However, this week’s talks pay lip service to the immediacy and scale of the crisis at the farm gate.

Beef producers are still waiting for retailers to honour the promises made more than a year ago after the horsegate debacle. Add to that slippage in consumer demand for beef, plus a surge in cheaper Irish imports, and you have a disaster waiting to happen.

Farmgate prices for beef have dropped by more than 70p/kg in the past year and continue to fall.

The opportunistic and short-term thinking around margins by retailers and processors weakens producer confidence and is highly damaging.

If the situation does not improve shortly, confidence will be at such a low ebb that the supply chain risks being able to source enough British beef long term.

It looks as if the bigger retailers have once again deflected the problem.

Exactly what actions they are going to take to tackle the crisis remains to be seen.

A good start would be for them to copy the lead of the premium-end grocers which have been more consistent in their pricing and proactive in red meat marketing to the shopper.

Consumers have a right to know where their red meat comes from and be able to make informed choices about what to buy.

That’s much harder to do all the time British beef sits bundled and promoted together in the chiller with Irish imports.

There are huge challenges and opportunities for British beef at home and overseas, but tackling them will take a lot more verve and detailed commitments than what we have seen this week.

Jane King 

Editor