Meat processors 'need cut in red tape'

Published on Thursday 8 October 2009 19:06

THE newly elected president of the Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers did not tarry long in posting his agenda for improving the profitability of the meat-processing sector.

Immediately after his election, Alan Craig called for the regulation of the industry to be more realistic and reasonable. He said: "SAMW has no problem whatsoever with cost-effective regulation which serves a real purpose within our industry."

He said his members working in the food industry always placed hygiene at the top of the list of operating priorities, but he did not believe that some of the current regulatory processes the processing sector was enduring were warranted.

Top of Craig's 'unwanted regulation' list was the anomaly surrounding the Veterinary Medicine Directorate residue testing. He said: "This process focuses on items which are never seen within our industry, certainly not in recent years.

"It is therefore a totally outdated requirement."

Craig revealed that this piece of legislation cost one SAMW member some 60,000 last year. "That's a 60,000 cost, incurred for absolutely no benefit to the company, its retail customers or consumers."

He believed very similar verdicts could be made about the Food Standards Agency, Meat Hygiene Service, Sepa and other regulatory bodies.

Frustratingly, even when officials of these organisations agree to reduce some of the bureaucratic burden, getting action was a "tortuous business".

He described the slow unwrapping of the BSE legislation as typical. The problem seems to have almost slipped off the agenda, but the industry is still left in a "high-cost time warp" dealing with the paperwork.

"This is damaging to businesses and a threat to the future viability of many rural communities" he warned.

Apart from the burden of bureaucratic controls, SAMW members are currently caught in a classic squeeze situation, with producers getting more for their stock while customers are reluctant to dig deeper into their wallets and purses.

"Cattle prices went from 215p a kg to 300p a kg in the half-year to June 2008, an inflationary increase which you would normally have expected to have been spread over 15, maybe even 20, years.

"With consumers paying only a small part of this increased price at the retail level, processor margins have remained extremely tight throughout the past year."

Craig placed a great deal of importance on the outcomes from the farm-support review being carried out by Brian Pack, former chief executive of Aberdeen and Northern Marts (ANM).

"We are facing a critical mass challenge on livestock numbers and cannot afford any further erosion of breeding herds and flocks," he said. "The Pack Committee, whose interim report is due in less than three months, carries a heavy responsibility. There is a growing sense of anticipation concerning the committee's recommendations.

"This is, after all, the one and only chance we will get to halt the current decline in livestock numbers, and we cannot afford to get it wrong."