NSA writes to agricultural press with lamb promotion concerns

12th February 2016

This week NSA Chief Execuative Phil Stocker wrote to agricultural pubications, the Farmers Weekly and Farmers Guardian. Read the full letter below.

With the results of the AHDB consultation exercise starting to emerge, no one who has taken part in the consultation meetings will be surprised that market development and promotion are seen as activities that need more focus.

Very few people wouldn’t value the research/development and knowledge transfer work that has been done; this work is essential and will always be required. But we must accept the industry’s current needs and get the right balance and proportionality of levy-funded activities. Previous messages from some quarters of AHDB that marketing and promotion don’t work have not helped the UK sheep industry, particularly last year when the importance of our domestic market was driven home. Farmers and processors pay a levy that should be invested for the good of the industry. We need technical development and should always strive to improve, but we also need market development, image creation and promotion. These two parts go hand in hand and no other manufacturer would ignore their importance.

The truth is that most farmers already strive to be better and AHDB already does a lot under the banner of market development – but the industry requires a flexible levy body that will adapt to needs. We cannot just assume that if we produce food people will buy it somewhere across the globe because they have to eat. That is not the way to develop a market for quality products such as lamb and mutton.

Sheep farming is fortunately still a richly diverse sector. It is land-based (pasture-based in the main) and delivers many recognised economic, environmental and social benefits. This is was creates the image that our market is based on and we must not lose it in some misguided rush to satisfy a narrow interpretation of efficiency so we can compete with low margin commodities. If that were to be the vision for lamb and mutton it would only end up in one place – and it would not be an improvement on where we are now.