The egg and broiler sectors have gone through a tumultuous couple of years, with many producers questioning whether they can continue in the same way.
A pivotal moment
NFU Poultry Board Chair James Mottershead told the audience: 鈥淭he poultry sector is at a pivotal moment. In the past two years we have all had to contend with huge increases in cost of production none of us thought imaginable, shortages of eggs on the supermarket shelves and a lack of producer confidence to invest and in some cases growers coming out of production altogether.
鈥淎 supply chain in jeopardy in both the egg sector and the broiler sector with the retailers and government not realising the true extent of challenges presently been felt by us all on farm.
鈥淲e have seen interest rates go up to levels that many of us have never had to run a business through.
鈥淎nd, we have had two years of the worst outbreaks of avian influenza. Resulting in challenges both on farm and further afield with trade barriers, restrictions on the movement of birds in to and out of disease control zones and, a system overwhelmed.
鈥淎s well as all this we鈥檝e had the individual people and businesses that have been caught up by this horrific disease.
鈥淚n the egg sector we have seen empty shelves and eggs being rationed as the egg shortage continued to play out as a direct result of mounting losses leading egg producers to cancel pullet orders and leave their sheds empty 鈥� something that we all warned would happen as it so epically did towards the end of 2022.鈥�
Making supply chains fit for the future
鈥淏ut no-one would be a farmer if they did not have a risk appetite, but sometimes I challenge farmers as to whether their risk appetite is a little too much and they might want to rein it back,"
Professor Louise Manning, University of Lincoln
Supply chain expert and Herefordshire broiler producer, Professor Louise Manning, of the University of Lincoln, provided a personal perspective of the opportunities the poultry sector has to strengthen supply chains ensuring that they are fit for the future.
Prof Manning told delegates that the government should have an appropriate food risk rather than a food security strategy.
She said that 鈥榞reen finance鈥� was coming farmers鈥� way from the banking industry, while at the same time they are coming under pressure to keep food prices low.
鈥淚 would argue that the stability we have had for the past 20 years is the aberration. If you look at any of the metrics, low interest rates constantly for a period of time is not what usually happens. So we are in a highly unpredictable world and it will continue.
鈥淏ut no-one would be a farmer if they did not have a risk appetite, but sometimes I challenge farmers as to whether their risk appetite is a little too much and they might want to rein it back,鈥� she added.
She said the industry had spent years becoming leaner, taking costs and people out of the system, but this approach did not work when there are shocks and squeezes to your supply chain and farmers need to be agile.
She defined resilience as 鈥榖ouncing without breaking鈥� as a coping strategy, but farmers need to 鈥榖ounce forward鈥� to succeed.
Meet the speakers from this session
Aimee Mahony
Chief adviser (poultry), National Farmers' Union
In 2019 Aimee was named the EPIC Young Poultry Person of the Year and eight months later was appointed NFU chief poultry adviser.
Aimee leads the NFU poultry team on a number of policy issues covering both the poultry meat and egg sectors and manages the national poultry board.
James Mottershead
NFU Poultry Board chair, Midlands
James is a previous chair of the NFU Poultry Industry Programme and has always been passionate about ensuring the voice of younger members is well represented.
He is keen for the board to address issues surrounding labour shortages, resilience and supply chain fairness and believes these are some of the industry's main priorities.
Louise Manning
Professor of Sustainable Agri Food Systems, Lincoln Institute for Agri-food Technology, University of Lincoln
Her research and consultancy expertise focusses on food security, sustainability, resilience, and food integrity. Louise is also involved in broiler production on her family farm in Herefordshire.