Meat Industry Manifesto highlights growing UK food security risks

The British abattoir industry is under threat from falling farm production, increasingly onerous trade barriers and a systemic labour shortage. Abattoir numbers have declined from around 2500 in the 1970s to just 203 today.

Download the BMPA Meat Industry Manifesto here.

This should worry UK consumers and government alike because, once we go beyond a tipping point where we don’t have a viable abattoir industry, it will lead to a sharper decline in domestic farming, a heavier reliance on imported meat and the loss of a key pillar of UK food security.

It’s already happening. Growth is turning to decline.

This might be a contentious statement, but the meat processing industry can survive without British livestock. If necessary, British meat processors could replace meat from UK reared animals with imported meat, and just focus on processing and packaging products for sale.

But British livestock farmers can’t survive without abattoirs.

If we let this trend continue, Britain is in danger of throwing away one of the key strategically important parts of UK infrastructure and seriously jeopardising the country’s food security. It will expose the UK to risks beyond our control like wars, climate change-driven shortages and export bans where supplies are suddenly cut-off.

Something that’s not often considered is that it would also decimate the UK dairy industry because both the meat AND dairy industries rely on a properly functioning domestic abattoir industry. All dairy cows eventually pass through a UK abattoir at the end of their time in production.

Download the BMPA Meat Industry Manifesto here.

Meat Industry Manifesto

BMPA’s member companies sit at the heart of the UK’s meat supply chain. They have a unique 360 degree perspective on the entire process from farm to fork, and can see the parts of the chain that are not functioning properly.

Our new Meat Industry Manifesto seeks to describe what a smoothly functioning, resilient meat supply chain should look like. It also highlights the impact of government policy on different areas from trade to workforce to regulation, and proposes answers to the issues raised.

Nick Allen, CEO of the British Meat Processors Association explains: “Since we left the EU the British meat industry has come under pressure from increased bureaucracy, tougher trade barriers and worker shortages. Government policy has played a dominant role and shaped the current trading environment. But many policy decisions have been made in a departmental vacuum, without a full understanding of the impacts and unintended consequences they will have on different parts of the food chain. Often, one problem is fixed, only to create another.

“We see the election of a new Labour government as an opportunity to re-set how government and industry work together to share on-the-ground intelligence that will help shape pragmatic, workable policies that strengthen Britain’s long-term food security. Our Meat Industry Manifesto sets out that ideal big picture and offers practical solutions to achieve it.”

Download the BMPA Meat Industry Manifesto here.