The supermarket giants Tesco have made a commitment to change their meat sourcing policy, responding to calls from the President of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), Peter Kendall.
Speaking at the NFU’s annual conference in Birmingham, Kendall said that the ongoing horse meat scandal has revealed significant shortcomings in the current supply chain for beef products sold in the UK, and has alerted the public to the dubious practices employed by some of the country’s larger food retailers, leaving them angry and searching for answers.
Emphasising his belief and that of his fellow union members, Kendall stated in his conference opening address that it is now clear using predominantly British beef, which can be tracked all the way from farm to plate, is highly advisable. An announcement from Phillip Clarke, the Chief Executive of Tesco, which stated their intention of making sure this happens more in the future, is therefore expected to be cautiously welcomed by the NFU and other official agriculture bodies.
In an interview with the BBC, Clarke confirmed that he and his colleagues will now endeavour to focus on selling meat which is produced ‘closer to home’, specifically pledging that all chickens sold in Tesco stores will be of British origin within a matter of months. The CEO also said that the shops under his direction now only receive meat which is subject to a new testing process that has been imposed in the wake of the recent horsemeat revelations, but has warned that this decision to drive up standards could soon drive up prices as well.
In a separate announcement, Sainsbury’s have made a similar promise, with Chief Executive Justin King committing to doubling the British meat it sells by the end of this decade. This move is no doubt linked to the results of a recent survey, which revealed that more than 80 per cent of shoppers in the UK want to see more domestically farmed produce on the country’s shelves.
Summarising the situation, Kendall said in his speech that all the headlines of the last few weeks come down to a ‘clear and simple message: we need shorter supply chains’. This widely held view has been echoed by other influential farming organisations such as the National Beef Association, who said that the supermarkets’ ‘relentless search for profit through buying cheaper product’ has now proven to be their undoing, with sales plummeting in chain stores and rising significantly across traditional butchers’ shops.
Kendall also noted that the need for change in meat supply lines is ‘not just about today’s 63 million UK consumers’, with the prospect of rapid population growth meaning that shops and farmers need to start thinking about how they are going to help sustainably and responsibly provide for future generations.
One of the several product lines Mole Valley Farmers specialises in is equestrian equipment, and items like the medicine, clippers, rugs and electric fencing for horses we supply are a reflection of the way we believe horses should be owned and reared; like all of our goods, from men’s and women’s wellies to animal feed, the meat that we sell in our stores is of the highest quality and can be reliably traced back to its original source.
Image credit: Clive Darra (flickr.com)
