Money from beef is a must.

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Author: Davies, Robert bobdavies@agrinews.fsnet.co.ukHarris, Robert

The future of the beef sector was high on the agenda at the National Beef Association's Beef Expo 2005 staged this week at Builth Wells in Powys. Some were more optimistic than others, as Robert Davies reports

FINISHED CATTLE buyers must wake up to the fact that beef farmers cannot survive if they sell cattle for 30-35% less than the money they put into them.

Robert Forster, the National Beef Association's chief executive, lost no time in using Beef Expo 2005 to ramp up his warning that beef producers were threatened with extinction unless slaughter cattle prices rose.

"No one can continue to produce beef cattle unless they are making money. Few were doing so when subsidies were built into the survival calculation," Mr Forster claimed.

And revenue from steers coming forward was down £145 a head compared with the same time last year. The £10 rise in the market price was well short of making up for money that no longer came in a brown envelope.

"There are already signs that dairy beef supplies are thinning down dramatically, and if more is not paid for suckler beef before the autumn then its production will go into retreat too," Mr Forster said.

"Other countries are making the right moves. Prices are up 27% in Germany and 16% in France compared with last year, while Irish prices are up 6.2% and at times are ahead of those in England and Wales.

"Someone over there has their eyes open and can see what needs to be done to keep beef supplies coming through. Unfortunately the pennies have still to drop over here. Retailers say they want our beef but are not paying enough to keep farmers in business."

However, local beef producer John Davies said he had no doubt that there was a bright future for efficient, innovative and market focused UK beef producers.

But they had to identify and correct management weaknesses, take an honest look at their production costs, and be willing to compare them with those of other producers.

For him, marketing was the key to a bright future for the beef industry. But the product had to be right, and processors had to adopt ways of measuring carcass quality being used in the United States, and in a growing number of other major producing countries. Then it was crucial that the food chain rewarded farmers for their efforts to improve meat quality.

"The supermarket code of conduct must be strengthened, and we need an ombudsman to oversee it," said Mr Davies. "There should also be a single quality label that does not confuse or deceive consumers."

PHOTO (COLOR): Retailers are not paying enough to keep farmers in business, says Robert Forster.

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By Robert Davies

Edited by Robert Harris, 020 8652 4934