Travel Ban May Cause British Meat Shortage By Week End

UK - The ban on animal movement imposed by the government to contain foot and mouth disease could create shortages of British meat by the end of the week, the government's head of sustainable food and farming, Sir Don Curry, told the Guardian yesterday.
calendar icon 7 August 2007
clock icon 2 minute read
Meat processors met officials from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) yesterday afternoon to discuss easing some of the foot and mouth restrictions under licence from Thursday so that livestock could be moved to slaughter to avoid shortages. Any movement of livestock from farms to abattoirs would depend on no further outbreaks of the disease being reported in other parts of the country.

The ban on livestock movement will have an immediate impact on food supplies, Sir Don said. "Within a week we will see short supplies, especially of pork and lamb. Beef has a longer maturation process, so there are perhaps two weeks' stocks, but by the end of this week, if restrictions are not lifted, we will be running out of home-produced lamb and pork." He anticipated that, as a short-term measure, retailers would be able to make good some of the shortfall with imports .

The organisation that represents the larger abattoirs and meat packers, the British Meat Processors' Association (BMPA), agreed. "If we can't slaughter within the week, it will be increasingly difficult to source British meat. Pork will be hit first, then lamb, and then beef," director Stuart Roberts said. British beef mince is likely to be affected quickly too, since it has a short life between slaughter and supermarket shelf, unlike other cuts of beef.

Source: Guardian Unlimited
© 2000 - 2024 - Global Ag Media. All Rights Reserved | No part of this site may be reproduced without permission.