Rural coalition issues warning as local abattoirs close down
Leading rural sector figures have warned unless action is taken to protect local slaughter facilities, farmers, food production, rural businesses and animal welfare will be put increasingly at risk.
Ahead of Country Landowners and Business Association (CLA) president Gavin Lane and National Farmers Union president Tom Bradshaw attending Wednesday’s Northern Farming Conference, some 150 groups, including the CLA, have called for urgent Government intervention to address UK abattoir numbers falling from around 2,500 to just 200.
Yorkshire has lost a large proportion of its smaller abattoirs - ones that process up to a 10,000 cows, sheep, goats or pigs per annum or 500,000 birds since the 1970s, leaving farmers without vital local facilities. Last year a survey of farmers and land managers revealed two-thirds had found difficulty accessing suitable abattoir services.
The Sustainable Food Trust said the closure of the only small abattoir in the Yorkshire Dales, McIntyre Meats, two years ago had spelt “disaster for the rural community, landscape and local food”.
It said with the closure, its 1,800 customers had been forced to go further afield, putting pressure on remaining small abattoirs and that long distances and rising journey costs had made some meat businesses unviable.
It said McIntyre Meats already had customers coming from as far as Whitby, a more than two hour journey, due to lack of closer abattoirs.
In a joint letter signed by over 150 organisations, businesses and individuals, the Government is being urged to recognise local slaughter capacity as essential food and economic infrastructure and take urgent action to secure a sustainable network.
The coalition includes the CLA, the Yorkshire Dales, North York Moors and Peak District national parks, The National Trust, The Soil Association, The Wildlife Trusts, The Sustainable Food Trust and Compassion in World Farming.
Christopher Price, Chair of the Abattoir Sector Group, said: “We are now at a tipping point. We need smarter, proportionate and genuinely risk-based regulation that maintains high standards without driving viable local businesses out of existence.”
The NFU says general reasons for closures include a "lack of labour availability, lack of available investment on infrastructure due to thin margins, increasing costs from waste disposal and red tape, external".
NFU President Tom Bradshaw, who is set to be a key speaker at the conference, has contrasted the important role abattoirs play in the food supply chain with the significant consolidation of the sector in which small and medium-sized abbatoirs have closed.
After a successful High Court challenge against the Food Standards Agency over its charging rates this summer, Mr Bradshaw said the trend of closures has resulted in serious consequences for livestock farmers.
He also highlighted concerns around increased journey times and travel costs.
Mr Bradshaw said: “The increased charges introduced by the Food Standards Agency have, in some cases, added tens of thousands of pounds to businesses’ bills overnight. These increases placed further strain on meat premises already under pressure from escalating costs and regulatory burdens.”
Since the outbreak of the war in the Middle East the NFU has also asked government to postpone the charges and adopt a different approach to help ease cost pressures on livestock farmers.