‘Retailers should charge more for beef’

Chris Mallon believes urgent lessons still needed to be learned into the circumstances which prompted the horsemeat scandal.

“We already knew a massive criminal deception had been inflicted on consumers and farmers by cheats in the red meat trade and that the retailers who purchased so many contaminated beef products without initiating checks have played their part in a Europe-wide scandal.

“The good news is that consumers recognised immediately that horsemeat substitution was confined to packaged, processed, products and since the scandal broke have concentrated their purchases not just on fresh beef – but on fresh beef of specific UK-origin.

“As a result the value of UK cattle is rising to the level it would have been if so much super-cheap horsemeat had not infiltrated the EU market.”

But confidence in British beef was not translating to fairer prices for suppliers, he said: “Back in January we heard retailers promise to eradicate the threat of horsemeat substitution by raising their scrutiny levels, shortening their supply chains, and making sure their suppliers received proper payment for orders delivered.

“However some of this appears to have been soft talk and hot air.”

A BrandView.com retail survey showed that since January 16, the UK’s four biggest retailers have failed to lift the price of 81 per cent of their beef products and another four per cent are actually cheaper, he said, adding: “Our very clear view is that unless Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons raise all their retail beef prices in line with the improving value of UK cattle it is inevitable that suppliers will make losses on their orders.”