Posting by Poultry World editor Richard Allison
I popped into my local Sainsbury’s store near Farnham on Saturday for a chicken, as we were having roast chicken for Mothers Day lunch. One thing I noted while browsing the shelves was that there was not a single, whole free range bird in the store.
The only free range chicken was cuts, breast, legs and thighs. This is in line with media reports of booming free range sales stripping stores bare in the weeks following Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s TV programmes.
However, what was worrying was that the free range cuts were imported from France. Such is demand that retailers are being forced to look further a field, which will have serious consequences on the British sector if it becomes a long-term fix, as highlighted by the NFU.
So has the push resulting in consumers trading up to imported free range products inadvertently increase food miles and threaten British companies? After all, there was still plenty of high quality, intensively produced British chicken on the shelves.
The TV chefs don’t understand that the UK industry cannot increase supplies like turning on a tap.
New units have to be built and they are getting bogged down in planning disputes as no one wants to live near poultry units, even if they are free range or organic. And compounding the problem is that rules seem to vary between councils.
Perhaps if the TV chefs highlighted the problem with planning rules, they would help the sector meet rising demand for free range chicken. Surely that is what they want.
Comments (1)
I hope these blogs are forewarded to J O and H F-W. There is no point preaching to other farmers who already know the problems.
Comment left on March 3, 2008 4:54 PM
Posted on March 3, 2008 16:54