By Charles Bourns, broiler grower, Gloucestershire
I have just watched the news and pictures of the food & farming summit with all the great and good enjoying a barbeque in the garden of number 10. I also had a letter from the Prime Minister saying how much he appreciated farmers, but all this these fine words will not pay the bills.
I also believe that the retailers are worried about supply of goods. If that’s the case, there is only one solution. I would have thought they would have learnt from the way they treated the egg supply base.
Maybe they will just go abroad. It seems this is already happening with poultrymeat. The latest Defra figures show that chicken consumption was at record levels last year but this was done on the back of imports.
My biggest frustration is that at the farm level prices appear to be down. Our liveweight price is down 9p per kilo; wheat prices are down and also milk. This needs to be pointed out very forcefully by those that represent us at the moment. A great number of my non farming friends believe I am receiving 18% more.
In the EU they have a law that says no product can be bought at a price below the cost of production. Our Government has refused to implement this, but the Italian egg industry whilst being subjected to the same cost rises as we have has grown by 10% on the back of exports. I rest my case.
We have been here before in 2005/6 and the industry got together and ran a very successful marketing campaign for about four years which resulted in a growth of sales and reversed the trend with foreign chicken. It is great to see M&S running an advert with Tom Kerridge. The industry needs to back this up, probably led by the Red Tractor.
On the farm I am sorry to say that my half house brooding and other measures did not help me pass the last CCL target and I have been asked by the EA to pay £575 to stay in. I have asked NFU Energy to see if they can argue my case because I do not think I will be alone with the increasing numbers of low stocking density chicken and slow growing chicken. It looks as if I will have to pay it as it will still pay me to stay in and receive the discount.
On a positive note, I have recently done the judging of the National Egg & Poultry Awards. I am pleased to say that it was a very difficult due to the very high quality of the entrants and the number of entries. They always inspire me to try and improve what I do at home. I do need to improve with the relentless rise in interest rates which I worry about more than the energy costs.