Outgoing BFREPA chairman John Retson quizzed
Later this month John Retson will hand over his three-year tenure as chairman of the British Free Range Egg Producers’ Association. Philip Clarke visited him in Scotland to reflect on his time in office
The past three years have been a roller coaster for free-range egg producers. What have been your highs and lows?
When I started as chairman I set myself three targets – to appoint a policy director, to grow the membership and to develop a databank. My high has been to make significant progress on all three.
I guess the low has been the poor turnout from members at the various roadshows we organised last year, and also the headlong rush back into free-range egg production at the start of the year in response to the short-term rise in price. It beggars belief.
On the subject of markets, do you see the drop in free-range egg sales this year as a blip or a trend?
Free-range egg producers have to face up to the fact that their market is oversupplied and is not about to recover.
Colony cage production continues to expand and, as the final builds are finished, the opportunity to cascade free-range eggs will vanish.
I think cage eggs could be back at more than 50% before long, especially as consumers are strapped for cash and looking for economy products. Free range is no longer a niche, it’s a commodity, and I can see the market under pressure for another five years.
What should the sector do to reverse its fortunes?
Well, costs are set to remain high, both for feed and for pullets, so we can’t produce any cheaper. So we have to start winning back customers.
At the BFREPA AGM this month we will be demonstrating sample banners and posters that farmers can put in their fields alongside motorways, or in the entrance to farm shops.
We have to start advertising free range again. The Red Lion is a good tool for marketing eggs generally, but it does not single out free-range eggs. We have to do that. It’s about local producers advertising to local communities.
“I’m very concerned at the lack of uptake of the trials into feather pecking that should be under way. I can understand why as, with no insurance policy, producers are reluctant to take the risk of things going wrong.”
John Retson
There’s been a lot of talk about contracts with packers. Would feed ratchets work in the egg sector?
I do think there is some mileage with feed ratchets, but at this point in time, when our product is in surplus and a lot of producers are blaming packers and supermarkets for the state of the market, I don’t think we will get them.
In an oversupplied market no one is going to rush to put up prices. That’s why I’m attaching so much importance to our five-point plan.
What’s that all about?
It starts with benchmarking. We’ve had long discussions with the NFU and NEMAL (National Egg Marketing Association) and have commissioned ADAS to start collating and verifying producers’ costs of production.
We are also conducting six-monthly member surveys to get a clear picture of what producers are planning in terms of bird numbers going forward.
The combined information is then fed into a new computer model, which will predict what the breakeven price will be at various points in the future.
With member involvement this databank will become a robust industry standard, which we can use to demonstrate to packers and supermarkets the return we need.
But it will only work if members get behind it and give us accurate information.
Pullet rearers, of which you are one, are also under pressure and have called for payments ahead of delivery. Is this a fair call?
I feel it is a valid point. We’re very exposed to bad debt at 16 weeks, especially as pullets cost £4 to produce. We should have the same payment terms as every equipment supplier, with an element of prepayment. It’s a two-sided arrangement and I’d urge producers to be talking well in advance with rearers as to what their requirements will be.
Having said that, I don’t think the rearers will achieve advance payments. Unless everyone does it together, it won’t work.
Do you think beak trimming will be banned in 2016?
On balance, yes, there’s a strong possibility. I’m very concerned at the lack of uptake of the trials into feather pecking that should be under way. I can understand why as, with no insurance policy, producers are reluctant to take the risk of things going wrong.
But I fear that, come 2016, whichever minister is in place at the time will just say the industry has put no effort into solving the problem, so the ban will simply go ahead.
And if it does?
We’ll have to tighten up drastically on our management techniques, right from rearing through to depletion. It is not a question of free range being any better or worse than cage in terms of feather pecking. It’s all about management.
We supply organic pullets in Scotland, which are not beak treated, and I have to say we see a very varied picture. To my mind there are too many people taking shortcuts.
Do you think egg producers are too complacent when it comes to fighting their corner?
I don’t think so. I’ve never been an advocate of standing on the streets of London chucking eggs, or withholding supplies.
What we need to do is engage more with the packers and supermarkets, to demonstrate the real need for a price increase by having solid market information and cost data. I do not think producers are scared of the packers, but I do think there is a bit of a blame culture when, in reality, we only have ourselves to blame for the current market imbalance.
What do you see as the greatest challenge in the next 12 months?
Without a doubt it is that free-range bird numbers, based on this year’s chick placings, are going to be too high. The impact on egg supply is frightening and, when it hits the market, I fear there will be carnage. Oh, and feed costs of course.
And in the next five years?
Well, beak trimming is one that is going to hit us in the face. Another one is the high amount of autogenous vaccines that the vets are asking rearers to put into pullets to deal with the growing disease threats out on the range.
These autogenous vaccines include combined cultures and they are affecting bodyweight, so that pullets may be too small when they come into lay.
The current average production in free range is 292 eggs per bird. I don’t know how we will get to 300 if we don’t address this serious problem.
I think we’re getting to a stage where, on some units, the advice should be “don’t take in any more pullets until you have cleared up the disease” rather than just use another vaccine.
What advice would you give to the incoming chairman of BFREPA?
First of all, to enjoy his term in office. If you’re not enjoying it, then why do it? And second, have a strategy and stick to it. Don’t allow personal criticism, which will come his way, to change his mind. Finally, the more you put into the role, the more you will get out of it.
What we need to do is engage more with the packers and supermarkets, to demonstrate the real need for a price increase by having solid market information and cost data”
| A family concern |
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John Retson started out in agriculture as a manager of a mixed estate for former NFU Scotland president Sandy Inverarity. The business included a 100,000-hen laying unit with its own pullet rearing facility, which gave him early experience of the chicken business. But Mr Retson was eager to start up on his own and, after 17 years, he took on the rent of a broiler shed near Blairgowrie, Perth and Kinross, and persuaded a joiner friend to patch it up, on the basis that he would be paid once the first few crops went through. At the same time, he also worked as a fieldsman for Ross Poultry, before becoming regional director for Poultry First in the 1990s. The JSR Services business was set up in 1990 in partnership with his wife Linda, operating as a small distribution company, servicing the Scottish poultry sector. John then spread into free-range egg production following the purchase of a laying unit from Poultry First in 2003. Today, the farm at Blairgowrie is home to some 55,000 free-range hens, including 16,000 in a multitier unit, plus 3,000 organic layers. JSR Services also produces some 300,000 organic pullets for the Scottish industry. “The drop in the organic market has actually helped our business, as some of the bigger pullet rearers have decided to get out altogether, leaving us more of an opportunity,” he says. “We are keen to be seen as a Scottish company, serving the Scottish organic egg sector. We don’t want to be hauling pullets all around England too.” The company also involves two of John and Linda’s sons, plus a team of nine. Half of turnover comes from egg production, 30% from pullet rearing and 20% from supplies. |
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