NSA Breakfast Club - Going it alone: a morning debate on the future trade of UK sheepmeat
Date: 27th January 2021
Time: 8.30am
Location: Online - zoom webinar
Below is a report on the contents of this webinar. To watch the webinar on demand please visit www.nationalsheep.org.uk/webinars/.
NSA’s second breakfast club webinar was another hit with an audience of 70+ joining us for a session on “Going it alone – an early morning debate about future trade of UK sheep meat”. Kevin Harrison, NSA’s English Committee Chair hosted the event giving his best cabin crew impression on housekeeping formalities, before introducing the panel.
Phil Hadley, Director of International Market Development for AHDB opened the session with an Entire Market overview, covering the domestic market, exports and the role of AHDB for future trade opportunities. Phil highlighted that at this time, imports are down 9%, exports are down 10% and overall, supplies are down 3%. It wasn’t looking like a positive onset until discussions on the domestic market showed that Covid-19 also brought many positives, such as changing consumer buying habits. More food is being consumed at home and it was great the hear that in the last 12 weeks there has been a significant increase of 18% spend on lamb alone, which over the year equates to 9% overall increase. Basically, more people are eating lamb more regularly, which is boosting overall value, which is reflected prices farmers are receiving for lamb. Phil covered the importance of the EU export market for the lamb sector, which by now I’m sure were all aware of, and then gave an insight into potential new markets being assessed by AHDB teams. On the horizon sits potential trade deals in the Middle East (which is increasingly important for growth of our Halal sector), as well as expanding our reputation into Asian markets, China in particular and Taiwan. AHDB are harnessing the powerful story of UK farming, to improve our reputation for future trade deals.
Mike Gooding Director of Farmers First then gave a thorough insight into how businesses can improve returns to UK livestock producers through the development of trade. Like Phil, he confirmed the importance of the UK-EU trade deal quoting: “at least we are still around the table with a process to govern future change”, something we all feared would never come. He then went on to highlight that although on the surface, developing trade seems complicated, it is a simple process of ‘tight supply + increasing demand = increase in price’. Supply domestically is on the rise (as highlighted by Phil), maintained access to the EU market ensures demand from the EU is preserved, and although we could do more to development in the non-EU markets (which AHDB demonstrated they are working on), as long as we can maintain demand both domestically and abroad, we will remain in a comfortable situation. Mike then raised an interesting point that when things get tough (like during the current pandemic) people still need to eat. “As an industry, we need to get better at articulating our product advantages” (such as the sustainability, ethically produced, grassfed, nutrition, biodiversity promotion, culture / heritage etc.) “and at meeting customer requirements”, which unfortunately do vary. “If we don’t do something to promote our product to the consumer, someone else will grab this market opportunity”. NSA will be looking into how we can build on this further through public awareness campaigns.
Finally, Ben O’Brien Director of Europe, Beef and Lamb New Zealand examined the importance of the pasture growth curve and how NZ are able to harness this to its full potential by finishing the majority of lambs during peak pasture availability. Ben quotes: “feeding on grass as a cheap source of feed will make you money. When you have to pay to feed things, you’re not making money”. Ben showed how in NZ the number of lambs entering abattoirs mimics the pasture growth curve, where as in the UK our pasture growth curve doesn’t translate into a production curve. Our abattoir throughput is quite flat in comparison… This is definitely an area we could build on by aiming to fatten more lambs in the peak of production to maximise value and get better returns overall. Another key area Ben covered was NZ strategic adaptability to improve chilled technology around 20-30 years ago. They had no choice but to invest in chilled technology to access new markets and find a viable outlet for their product. Through this investment, they can now offer a 12-week shelf life on NZ chilled lamb. Here in the UK, we are only able to reach 30 days, so for export markets, given the option of product with a 90 day shelf life vs 30 day shelf life when in the flesh they are a very similar product puts the UK at a severe disadvantage. We are in global market so we need to find imaginative ways to invest and deliver product standards.
The webinar concluded with a lively debate within the panel and with questions from the audience before Kevin brought the webinar to the end.
If you missed the webinar, you can watch it back at www.nationalsheep.org.uk/webinars. While NSA webinars are open to everyone, the work NSA does is only possible with support from its members. Consider showing your support for the NSA and the UK sheep industry by becoming a member today. Find more information here.
