By Will Raw, chair, NFU poultry board
Taking the opportunity to write this on a long train journey back home to Yorkshire after a very productive roundtable meeting with Farming Minister Eagle at the Defra building in London. It gives me time to reflect on some of the challenges, but also the opportunities that our NFU Poultry Board have faced since my last column in November.
The proposed Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) agreement as part of the EU-UK negotiations saw the Board review areas of legislation where the EU and UK have diverged since Brexit. Avian Influenza movement licensing, use of veterinary medicines and organic pullet rearing were all raised as business-critical areas that the NFU is urging the UK government to protect in their negotiations with the EU.
In the run up to Christmas, we saw the government outline its Animal Welfare Strategy. In January, Defra opened the consultation on ending the use of colony cages in egg production. Needless to say, the NFU opposes an outright ban on colony cages. In our consultation response we will be making the case for any transition period to cage-free production to be at least as long as that proposed by the EU. We will also be calling for government support to overcome significant production barriers such as cost, planning permission and environmental permitting.
The board also discussed concerns around raising standards here, without the need for replication on imports. This is deeply important to members, particularly as we see increased volumes of Ukrainian product in our markets, much of which is produced to standards that would be illegal to produce to here.
At our January Board meeting, we were fortunate to have Richard Thompson from the government’s Agriculture Supply Chain Adjudicator team join us. Richard outlined the roles and responsibilities of his office in regulating contracts in the pork and dairy supply chains. He will also be responsible for enforcing the upcoming Fairer Dealings Regulations in the egg sector. Board members highlighted the need for a joined up approach with the Grocery Code Adjudicator (GCA) to ensure fairness throughout the supply chain. We look forward to working with Richard and his team in the near future.
As I eluded to in my opening remarks, we have also represented NFU members at a poultry industry roundtable meeting hosted by the Farming Minister. This was a wonderful opportunity for the NFU, alongside other key industry stakeholders, to highlight some of the current issues we are facing across the poultry meat and egg sectors. More importantly, it was also a chance to outline the wonderful opportunities for growth and investment in the poultry sector, should some of the current issues around planning and permitting be resolved.