AUCTIONEERS
AUCTIONEERS
COMMENT
MARKET
Bagshaws, Bakewell
AUCTIONEER
Ian Lawton
(chairman, Livestock
Auctioneers Association)
WHAT are the prospects facing auctioneers and our livestock- producing customers as we enter this new millennium?
As auctioneers, our fortunes are inextricably linked with those of the producer. Together we are assaulted by extreme currency changes, politicians who see no advantage in supporting us, and beaurocrats who see us as a reason – and a tool – for their existence.
BSE, the scientists, and inept politicians have done their best to bury us, but we are still here. However, we cant just sit back and expect that things will get better on their own; we must fight to ensure our interests are protected.
Already, there have been some notable successes. Take Farmers Ferry; they were advised that a bid to restart live exports would fail. How wrong that advice was. Its hard not to admire their determination and effort.
The ongoing and increasing success of farmers markets is another example.
These have been achieved by downright determination and effort, and hold a very strong lesson. We must strive to help ourselves in whatever way we may. Exploring new markets, exerting political pressure to renew old ones, getting rid of the artificial barriers which give us unequal opportunities should all be targeted. It will be hard, but it is possible.
And what of auctioneers? We have to make our producer customers understand that they need an auction system to maintain their independence and strength. Using it is an investment in their own future and security.
This is not just a ploy to justify our existence. The evidence of the auctions benefits are all to easy to see if you look for them. Look what happened to those industries that lost theirs as the main method of fixing price.
Take the pig sector as one example and it requires no further comment. And then theres the milk industry – where politicians listening to a bleating processing industry determined not to compete for supplies never allowed the auction system to be used.
If livestock producers want to know what happens when livestock markets close, look at Southern Ireland where the fatstock auction system has gone.
A famous Irish meat magnate once claimed it cost 1p/kg to get rid of it. But why did they want rid of it? It was not in the producers interest as a look at his current competitive position will show. Producers are given as much as the processor thinks he needs to ensure a further supply and not a penny more. The position in Northern Ireland is much the same.
Although the auction system is not a cure for all ills, its the clearing house that finds an outlet for all stock, including those from even the most efficient producers which for reasons outside his/her control do not fit a particular specification.
And producers should not be fooled into thinking that the number of customers for stock is falling. There are some 325,000 food outlets in the UK, but we must recognise that lifestyles are changing rapidly.
We are likely to follow trends in the USA where 53% of all food is consumed outside the home. Should we then continue to be obsessed with the fresh meat retailer? Catering, ready meals and processed/value-added markets are expanding. Should we not be chasing these markets with equal vigour, especially when much of the produced used is imported?
At the same time we need to work on consumers. Home economics and cooking may be old hat, but we have a generation ignorant of food safety and a public who have a paranoia on the safety of food.
Our industry has spent £ billions to achieve excellence in safety, but we have a set of politicians not even prepared to teach it in schools as the education ministers most recent decision showed. There must be work to do here.
There are many other issues on which we must fight for the right to feed our nation, and however black the future might appear, its all out there to be fought for.