Meat wholesaler Macduff 1890 ceases operations

The family-owned, fourth-generation meat wholesale company Macduff 1890, under the leadership of Andrew Duff, the great-grandson of its founder, has ceased operations and closed.

Andrew Duff expressed his great disappointment that trading conditions had given him no other option,

He explained: “On Friday, March 15, Macduff 1890 ceased its operations, and it’s a decision made with deep sadness. I’ve personally contacted all our suppliers and customers to apprise them of the situation and to let them know that our doors are now closed.

“My personal passion has always been centred around championing rare and native breeds, and I earnestly hope that another firm within the meat industry will carry forward this passion.”

SAMW executive manager Scott Walker said: “It is very sad to see the closure of a long-established meat wholesale business. This is a reflection of the thin operating margins which the entire industry operates on and the challenging conditions the industry has faced in recent years.”

 

Kelly Henaughen | The Scottish Farmer

Russia sends first pork shipment to China in 15 years

Russia has announced that it has sent pork to China for the first time since 2008 when the Chinese Government imposed a ban on Russian due to African Swine Fever.

Russia sent 27 tonnes of pork to China on Thursday, according to Russia’s veterinary and phytosanitary service, Rosselkhoznadzor, Reuters reports.

“On March 7, the Rosselkhoznadzor monitored the shipment of the first batch of Russian-made pork to China with a volume of 27 tonnes,” Rosselkhoznadzor said in a statement.

The shipment came after China lifted ASF restrictions, which had been in force against Russia since 2008, in September 2023. Rosselkhoznadzor said it had been trying to open up the Chinese market to Russian pork for some years

China is still by a long distance, the world’s biggest pork importer, despite its import volumes dropping in recent years as its herd recovers from its own ASF outbreak.

The biggest exporters of pork and offal to China are currently Brazil, Spain, Canada, the United States, Denmark and the Netherlands, but Russia is hoping to muscle in and secure 5% of that lucrative market, according to the Russian National Union of Pig Breeders.

 

Alistair Driver | Pig World

Hilton Food Group among the speakers to address Meat Business Women Conference

Steve Murrells, CEO, Hilton Food Group, Ruth McDonald, Corporate Services Director, Morrisons and Jane Treasure, Food & Beverage Director, Pizza Express have been announced as the keynote speakers at the UK & Ireland Meat Business Women conference in May 2024.

The conference, taking place at NatWest, Bishopsgate London on Wednesday, May 22 will be themed around ‘The Power of Us.’ Speakers will share their insights into how they see the meat and food industry evolving over the next five years, including key challenges, and opportunities for their respective sectors. They’ll also be providing delegates with key learnings from their personal career journeys and on the conference theme, including insights into mentoring, industry collaboration, allyship at work and how delegates can support one another’s’ career progression.

Matthew Stoughton-Harris, Economics and Public Policy Manager, IGD will also give an update on market and consumer trends.

 

 

Delegates will also hear from leaders outside of the food industry, in a panel themed on ‘The Power of Collective Change.’ The panel will feature change-makers Zara Mohammed, Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain, Kate Stephens, CEO of Smartworks Charity, Angela Owen OBE, Founder, Women in Defence UK and Sharniya Ferdinand, Enterprise Community Strategy Director, NatWest. All panelists will share their stories of leadership in order for delegates to gain different perspectives to take forward to their day to day roles.

In response to the findings of the 2023 Gender Representation Report on the importance of allyship in progressing gender equality in the workplace, a new panel discussion will take place themed on ‘Allyship in Action’ featuring Craig Tomkinson, Chief Finance Officer, 2 Sisters Food Group, Richard Phelps, Agriculture Director, ABP Food Group, Nicola Washington, Head of Food Safety & Quality, Cranswick plc, Ian Lindsay, Managing Director, Smithfield Foods and will be chaired by Andrea Jex, Procurement Director, Hilton Foods.

Delegates will also have the chance to take part in a dedicated personal development and networking session in the afternoon to workshop the themes of the day and build business connections.

In order to ensure the conference is accessible for all, it will also be livestreamed, allowing for delegates who are not able to attend in person, to access and take part in the morning sessions and keynote speakers.

In person tickets are now sold out, but a waiting list is in operation. Virtual tickets are available to buy individually, or as a group.

Meat Business Women is grateful to MorePeople for sponsoring the lunch, and to NatWest for providing the conference venue.

 

See also:

Meat Business Women Announces New Territory Partner For Australia

 

Defra confirms funding withdrawal for Dover illegal meat checks

Defra has confirmed that grant funding for checks for illegal meat imports at Dover will be withdrawn at the end of April, after which it will be up to the Port Health Authority (PHA) to start charging offenders to recover costs.

The information is set out in a letter from biosecurity minister Lord Douglas-Miller to Sir Robert Goodwill, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) committee chairman, responding to a number of questions raised by the committee last month.

In particular, Sir Robert wanted to know if media reports of a planned 70% cut in the funding were true, how many checks were currently being made, and what would be the implications for UK biosecurity from reducing such checks.

In his reply, Lord Douglas-Miller explains that the budget for such spot checks – designed to look out for meat contaminated with African swine fever – was only ever intended as a temporary measure, until such time as the new Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) came into force.

“Once phase two of the BTOM is introduced in April, this transitional grant funding scheme will end as intended,” he said.

 

Philip Clarke | Farmers Weekly

 

See also:

UK industry fears disruption from new post-Brexit border checks

‘Unprecedented’ volumes of illegal meat seized at Port of Dover

Lamb prices hit £7 a kg at abattoirs

 

A flying finished lamb trade and a positive outlook for the spring will offer some confidence to sheep farmers during the next few months.

Strong retail demand, tight supply, increased export trade and firm buyer interest in the build-up to Ramadan should all help to offer short-term support.

The deadweight lamb SQQ averaged £7/kg for the week ending 24 February, up 37% (189p/kg) on the same week last year.

Tight supplies of lamb have left processors looking for stock, with GB estimated slaughter figures back by about 8% compared with this time last year, to less than 200,000 head a week. This is due to a smaller lamb crop in 2023, and adverse weather slowing finishing on farm and restricting the number of hoggs coming forward.

Meanwhile, this year’s early lambers are being affected by a rise in cases of Schmallenberg disease, which could limit throughputs moving forward.

In Scotland, R3L-grade lambs averaged 696p/kg deadweight in mid-February, while old-season lambs at Scottish auction marts have been averaging about 315p/kg liveweight.

 

Charlie Reeve | Farmers Weekly

Avara focuses on optimisation after tough year

Avara Foods has pledged to streamline its business after posting a second successive loss in its annual accounts.

The leading poultry supplier’s latest accounts, for the financial year ended May 2023, showed an increase in turnover to over £1.5bn, but an overall loss of £12.8m after taxation. That represented an improvement of £3.3m on the May 2022 result.

The financial performance reflected a continuing tough trading climate, with new inflation driving costs higher and further depressing underlying demand, according to the company.

Chief executive Andy Dawkins said: “Given the anticipated prevailing economic and market conditions, financial performance for the period is in line with expectations. Avara’s higher turnover has arisen from the inflationary pressure that has been well documented over the period, but this significant rise does not fully offset the total increase in production costs, resulting in an overall loss after taxation.”

 

Also:

Jobs at risk as Avara factory closure announced

 

Michael Barker | Poultry News

Herefordshire meat supplier get go-ahead to expand

A high-profile Herefordshire meat supplier has been told it can expand its packing and distribution plant – despite objections from neighbours.

Neil Powell of Country Tastes, Longmeadow Industrial Estate, Ewyas Harold applied in March last year for planning permission for the 164-square-metre light industrial unit.

This would take up space currently occupied by eight parking spaces. But new parking will be added elsewhere at the site, increasing overall parking from 24 to 34 spaces, the firm’s application said.

The council’s senior landscape officer Nigel Koch objected to the lack of any landscaping to soften the proposal, despite its prominent location at the junction of the A465 and Pontrilas Road.

 

 

Gavin McEwan | Hereford Times

NZ: Celebrating National Lamb Day

New Zealanders are being encouraged to celebrate lamb as the meat that made a nation.

February 15 has been designated National Lamb Day as it was on that date in 1882 the sailing ship Dunedin departed from Port Chalmers carrying the first shipment of frozen lamb to London.

Ag Proud chairman Jon Pemberton said the voyage was the start of New Zealand’s journey as a global food powerhouse.

“National Lamb Day is our way of honouring this legacy, celebrating our incredible kai, and acknowledging every individual involved in its journey from farm to fork.

“Let’s raise a chop in salute to our food champions!”

About 5000 frozen carcasses from Totara Estate, near Ōamaru, were on the Dunedin and only one was condemned when it arrived.

However, almost all were nearly lost in the tropics, where crew noticed the cold air in the hold was not circulating properly.

To save the cargo, Captain John Whitson crawled inside and sawed extra air holes.

He almost froze to death himself and had to be pulled out by ropes and resuscitated by crew members.

The success of the frozen exports encouraged farmers to grow their flocks with numbers peaking in 1982 at about 70 million.

That had dropped to about 26 million by 2021, but New Zealand still has the highest density of sheep per farm area in the world.

In 2022 lamb and mutton exports returned $4.4 billion in revenue.

 

Debbie Jamieson | Stuff.co.nz

French farmers up in arms over EU free-trade agreements

French farming unions are taking aim at the European Union’s free-trade agreements, which they say open the door to unfair competition from products arriving from overseas. At a time when the EU is urging farmers to adopt more sustainable – and sometimes more costly – agricultural practices, unions say these trade deals are making it hard for them to stay solvent.

French farmers say that one of their biggest fears is that Chilean apples, Brazilian grains and Canadian beef will flood the European market, thereby undermining their livelihoods. France’s farmers continued to demonstrate on the country’s motorways on Wednesday, protesting against rising costs, over-regulation and free-trade agreements –partnerships between the EU and exporting nations that the farming unions say leads to unfair competition.

The EU has signed several free-trade agreements in recent years, all with the objective of facilitating the movement of goods and services. But farmers say the deals bring with them insurmountable challenges.

“These agreements aim to reduce customs duties, with maximum quotas for certain agricultural products and non-tariff barriers,” said Elvire Fabry, senior researcher at the Jacques Delors Institute, a French think-tank dedicated to European affairs. “They also have an increasingly broad regulatory scope to promote European standards for investment, protection of intellectual property, geographical indications and sustainable development standards.”

 

Cyrielle Cabot | France 24

French protests concern lamb exports but trade holds firm

UK lamb prices are holding up, despite major protests by farmers in France who have been blocking roads, which has disrupted British lamb exports heading to the Continent.

The GB deadweight lamb SQQ increased by 23.6p/kg on the week to 631.8p/kg, with lower throughputs at abattoirs.

Prices at auction markets were also up, with the liveweight SQQ at 296.2p/kg for the week to 27 January.

Auctioneers say while finished prices have been strong in the past week, supply could catch up with demand if retail markets remain quiet and export markets stay disrupted.

Rizvan Khalid, managing director at Shropshire-based exporter Euro Quality Lambs, told Farmers Weekly the French protests had already had an effect on logistics, with at least one lorry missing its delivery.

As a result of the protests, there are currently fewer buyers at Rungis International Market in Paris, which is affecting sales, according to Mr Khalid.

 

Charlie Reeve | Farmers Weekly

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