Meat promotion will

21 July 2000

Meat promotion will

lobby schools too

THE Welsh Council created by the Meat and Livestock Commission will use the Royal Welsh to promote its first corporate plan.

It covers the period 2000 to 2003. A budget of £1.7m has been agreed for this year, but funding for the next two years has not been finalised. As expected £789,000 will go directly to Welsh lamb and beef promotion, but £60,000 is set aside for a growing involvement in education.

This includes a determined lobbying of the National Assembly to get home economics reinstated on the national curriculum, and to persuade education committees and local authorities to use home produced meats in their catering outlets.

Members of the Council are drawn from all sectors of the Welsh meat industry and they will urge politicians visiting the event to commit the match funding needed to get EU rural development grants, and to the Welsh Food Centre for the creation of new value added meat products.