Low Domestic Beef Prices Forcing Exports
UK - Low domestic beef prices are forcing stock to be exported to Europe, according to the National Beef Association (NBA).
30 April 2007
1 minute read
More than 3,000 dairy beef bulls a week, and a growing number of weaned sucklers, are being lost to the domestic industry because finished cattle prices are not high enough to keep the animals in the UK.
The NBA says the exports are driving the UK’s 20 per cent self-sufficiency gap.
“If more money was moving through the system the NBA would expect at least 200,000 more Black and White bull carcases to be sold on next year's slaughter market and live suckler exports to be reduced to a trickle,” said NBA chairman Duff Burell.
“It seems domestic players are blind to the supply advantages this would create for them and we regret their inability to accept that if prices are too low in this country then more of our live animals, stock they actually want and need, will be sold overseas,” he said.
Mr Burrell said rearers and finishers were not able to commit to bull calves with the current market average of just 180-185p per dwkg.
