Shoppers must demand Scottish chicken on supermarket shelves – or risk losing it altogether, a leading farmer has warned.
Bob Hay, of Turriff, claimed the industry was “on it knees” after 16 producers, mainly in the north and north-east, were forced to stop production in the past 12 months.
The slump follows a decision by the main chicken processor – 2 Sisters – to slash the number of birds it slaughters north of the border.
Until August, Mr Hay was producing about 490,000 chickens a year.
Yesterday he revealed there will only be one independent producer left north of Aberdeen by the end of this month, while across Scotland, the number of independent chicken producers has fallen by 57% since November last year, with only 12 remaining.
Mr Hay, who farms at Clunarty near Turriff and is the chairman of NFU Scotland’s poultry committee, said he was given less than five days’ notice that his contract was being axed.
While he is likely to get compensation due to the notice period in his agreement, his business has lost an annual turnover of about £700,000, he added.
Now he is hoping another processor can be encouraged into the area.
Mr Hay, who also runs an arable and egg laying business, said the potential market in Scotland for chicken meat was 1.4million birds a week, with the country’s three processing plants only killing about 755,000.
Mr Hay added: “We need consumers to actually say if they want it [Scottish chicken].
“If we don’t do anything pretty soon, then all these sheds and facilities will be lost. The Scottish Government also needs to look at how it procures chicken.”
He said many of the farmers who had had their contracts ended on short notice had invested heavily in their farms to meet welfare and environmental standards.
Management for 2 Sisters have repeatedly blamed an oversupply of chicken and the urgent need to create an “economically viable poultry industry in the country” for terminating the farmers’ contracts.
A spokesman for the firm told the Press and Journal: “We have to consolidate our production base in order to secure the longer-term future of the poultry industry in Scotland.”
See the Farming supplement for more on the chicken growers’ plight.