By NFU chief poultry adviser Aimee Mahony
I’m currently attending the World Egg Organisation conference in Warsaw, Poland where hundreds of delegates from around the world have gathered for two days of knowledge exchange and discussion on key topics including avian influenza, branding and marketing, and bird management.
Global conflict is a hot topic and a session dedicated to an international grain outlook provided an informative overview of the current situation. It’s amazing how the choices made by people in different countries can have worldwide ramifications. We’ve seen this in terms of wars, but production and prices are also heavily influenced by the actions of prominent countries such as the USA and China.
The weather has become more of a talking point in terms of its impact on bird management, not least how weather patterns can increase the risk of disease incursion. We have seen this in the aftermath of recent storms in the UK but further afield there is concern that an El Niño is on the horizon. This natural climate pattern is characterised by the warming of ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific. It can drive significant global weather changes like heavy rain in some places and droughts in others. This ultimately can impact global feedstocks. Insights like this certainly make you think more broadly about the challenges the world is facing.
In terms of poultry meat, I wanted to highlight the upcoming Love British Chicken week that the NFU is leading on between 25-31 May. We will be proactively promoting all the positive elements of poultry production in order to tell the story of the sector better – something that NFU National Poultry Board members have been discussing for a while. This campaign will highlight the nutritional benefits of chicken alongside the high standards that UK poultry farmers adhere to with the aim of ensuring consumers can make informed choices when buying chicken.
There is an online toolkit which can be found on the NFU website to help identify how to get involved with the campaign and if you want to support in a broader way then please do reach out to discuss further opportunities. Whilst this is the first year of this renewed campaign, we are looking to lay a solid foundation which can be built upon in years to come, and I hope that you will all get involved in whichever way you feel most comfortable.
Finally, the Pig and Poultry Fair is just around the corner and I’m looking forward to seeing many of you there. Please do find stand 660 in Hall 6 where colleagues and I will be pleased to greet you.