BMPA calls for new veterinary agreement with EU
The British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) has called for the government to press ahead with negotiating a new veterinary agreement with the EU, in a new Meat Industry Manifesto.
Launching the manifesto, the BMPA warns that the British abattoir industry is under threat from falling farm production, increasingly onerous trade barriers and a systemic labour shortage and points out that abattoir numbers have declined from around 2500 in the 1970s to just 203 today.
“This should worry UK consumers and government alike because, once we go beyond a tipping point where we don’t have a viable abattoir industry, it will lead to a sharper decline in domestic farming, a heavier reliance on imported meat and the loss of a key pillar of UK food security. It’s already happening. Growth is turning to decline,” the association said.
“This might be a contentious statement, but the meat processing industry can survive without British livestock. If necessary, British meat processors could replace meat from UK reared animals with imported meat, and just focus on processing and packaging products for sale. But British livestock farmers can’t survive without abattoirs.”
The 20-page manifesto includes a number of changes the association would like to see, as the new government settles into power.
“The single thing that would bring the biggest benefits to the UK food supply chain and British shoppers alike is a veterinary agreement with our biggest trading partner, the EU,” it states.
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