British farmers hit out at Tesco plans to import American beef

Tesco announced that it will begin stocking American beef in some of its stores in the next few months.

A spokesman for the supermarket told the Yorkshire Post that the chain had no intention to stock vast quantities of meat from the USA and that the product would account for less than 0.1 per cent of its fresh beef offer.

“This is a premium product available in a very small number of stores,” he said. “Tesco is proud to be the biggest customer of British agriculture.’

The rest of Tesco’s fresh beef is British and Irish, he added.

However, the move prompted concern from the National Farmers’ Union livestock chairman, Alistair Mackintosh, who said: “Supermarkets should show their support for the British beef industry by ensuring they do all they can to source British beef for their shelves.

“While it’s fantastic to see the on-going commitment from some of the retailers who source 100 per cent British, fresh, red meat, I believe others could do more to show commitment to British beef farmers.

“The beef industry has gone through a difficult number of years. We have seen the beef price recently break through the £3/kilo mark which is encouraging, but this still falls somewhat short of covering the costs of production.

“It is therefore disappointing that some retailers feel the need to undermine producer confidence by sourcing foreign beef. A greater commitment from retailers to stock as much British beef as possible would send out the correct message to farmers to invest in production and ensure the future viability of the industry.”

The news comes ahead of a drive by the NFU to encourage UK politicians to back the country’s dairy farmers.

Union bosses will meet next Tuesday with politicians from all parties at the House of Lords next week to encourage the Government to take action to eliminate unfair commercial practices and create a brighter future for the British dairy industry.

The discussions will also focus on why the UK dairy market is not working in its present state, how contracts should be improved and the importance of the EU dairy package. National dairy board chairman Mansel Raymond believes MPs have a part to play in highlighting the issues to galvanise support for change.

“This meeting gives us the ideal opportunity to tell MPs from all sides of the political spectrum about the overwhelming amount of evidence out there which suggests that the dairy supply chain is not working properly and what needs to be done to turn things around,” he said.

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