Covid-19 exposes meat supply chain failures

Sainsbury’s, Asda and Tesco were all in the firing line, with Tenant Farmers Association chief executive George Dunn calling for the Government to step in.

“Retailers have been handed the monopoly on delivering food to consumers and need to act responsibly in the supply chain,” he said.

“Defra should be holding the feet of the retailers to the fire having given them relaxed competition rules.”

Sourcing policy

Despite social media being awash with images of supermarket shelves dominated with Irish beef, the retailers said the proportion of imports was within their sourcing policies.

The move came just weeks after major beef processor ABP Food Group supplied 400 tonnes of Polish beef to Sainsbury’s and Asda.

Visible

But Stuart Ashworth, director of economic services at Quality Meat Scotland (QMS), highlighted the produce being seen on shelves was ‘unlikely’ to be a result of increased foreign imported beef volumes.

Pointing to the closure of the food service sector, which typically bought higher value cuts of meat, he said: “It is much more likely the produce has been redirected from food service into alternative markets, such as retail, so adhering to legal labelling legislation has made it much more visible.”

HMRC monthly trade figures published by AHDB demonstrated beef imports from Poland were up a third on last year, but overall beef imports during the year were down by 12.8 per cent.

Irish beef

British producers have also been acutely aware of the glut of Irish beef which was left without a home when the food service market closed overnight.

Now, with the extension of the Irish Government’s Temporary Covid-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme allowing the furlough of abattoir workers and reducing operational costs by 70-85 per cent, Irish beef could be a commercially attractive proposition to the supermarket giants.

Prices

Norman Bagley, head of policy at the Association of Independent Meat Suppliers, said: “While it is disappointing for British farmers to see Irish beef on supermarket shelves when plenty of domestic product is available, it is a commercial decision made by the retailers in accordance with their sourcing policies and it is reassuring it is being offered at comparable prices to British produce.

“It will be interesting to see how much Irish beef enters the UK in the coming weeks and whether some Irish processors use the competitive advantage given to them by their government in heavily subsidising workers’ wages to undermine the domestic UK market.

“A major input of much cheaper beef would have serious implications for producer prices here, however there has been no indication of this approach yet.”