Beef premiums threatened by imports
2 December 1999
‘Beef premiums threatened by imports’
By Vicky Houchin
HIGH prices enjoyed by British farmers over the rest of Europe are threatened by a shortage of domestic cattle, according to the National Beef Association.
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The claim was made at the Royal Smithfield Club Winter Fair, by Robert Forster, chief executive of the National Beef Association.
Mr Forster said British farmers could supply quality beef but were in danger of losing their premiums to cheaper imports unless they produced more cattle.
Fears that the end of the Calf Processing Aid Scheme, which finished at the end of July, would flood the market had proved to be unfounded, he said.
The scheme, which paid dairy farmers to take new-born bull calves off the market during the BSE crisis, ended when British beef exports resumed.
Even though the scheme has finished, all the information points to only 35-40% of those calves being reared, claimed Mr Forster.
“That is not enough to make up for the volume that has come out of intervention this year. And next year the intervention stores will be empty.”
Common Agricultural Policy proposals could see a 4% drop in suckler cow premiums allowing 20% of producers to claim on unbred animals, said Mr Forster.
This would lead to 10% of quota now on the breeding cow being moved to an unbred heifer within five years, he added.
Mr Forster also voiced concern that the market for beef could end up in a similar crisis to the pig industry.
“We have to be able to maintain enough of our own supply to encourage retailers who want to buy our products to keep buying,” he warned.
Farmers must not move quota to unbred heifers and must sell to the widest range of markets and the widest range of labels.
“I am appealing to farmers to realise they have to breed calves. If we havent got the product we cant sell it and will be in a worse position.”
Tim Bastable of Midland Meat Packers said the problem was that it was difficult to impose a preference for cattle when the market was led by subsidies.
“We are looking for a market yet have subsidies always blocking it,” he said.
But Mr Forster said the solution to this would be to move subsidies to where they were least distorted – towards suckler cows.