A leading industry analyst has described the outlook for the UK poultry industry as “quite scary” because of EU and national regulations and competition from the expanding low-cost production in Brazil and Thailand.
Speaking at a national poultry meat conference in the West Midlands town of Droitwich, Allan Meldrum of the Cobb Europe poultry breeding group said that low-cost imports were a great threat to the UK industry.
Thailand and Brazil have not only been increasing their exports to the UK but also to countries which the UK exports to, such as Hong Kong and Russia, reported the Scotsman.
Chairman of the English National Farmers’ Union poultry meat committee Sid Lunn agreed that cheap imports were threatening the UK industry.
“Our industry is at a crossroads. Whilst I believe that the British poultry sector has a viable future, we need to review our current direction, otherwise we are in danger of driving production out of this country by our own actions or inactions.
“We all need to refocus on what we can offer the final consumer. We need to ensure that British chicken is the suppliers’ preference and that the final consumer actively seeks our products,” Lunn said.
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