Politicians from all parties were urged yesterday to do their bit to secure a future for the Scottish poultry sector after a restructuring by the country’s only processor which threatens scores of independent growers.
The plea was made at a meeting in Inverurie held by NFU Scotland’s north-east region and attended by MSPs Christian Allard, Maureen Watt, Nigel Don, Richard Baker, Nanette Milne as well as Alison McInnes and MPs Eilidh Whiteford and Malcolm Bruce.
Regional NFU Scotland chairman Charlie Adam said the elected representatives were given plenty to think about during the near three-hour gathering.
Mr Adam said chief among the concerns raised was over the future of independent chicken producers in the wake of the 2 Sisters Food Group revealing plans to cut throughput at its plant at Coupar Angus, pay off 200 staff and take all its chicken production in-house.
Mr Adam said producers had concerns about the dominant position now held by 2 Sisters in the Scottish market and the lack of competition, although it is due to sell its Letham facility, where there is the prospect of increased throughput, to a consortium.
He too raised worries about public support being received by the Coupar Angus site in the past and questioned what would happen to that.
Mr Adam said the politicians had been asked to do all they can to assist as well as to encourage their constituents to ask for Scottish chicken at retailers, given the sparse offering of it in several chains, including Asda, Waitrose and Morrisons.
The MSPs and MPs were also asked to intervene in the row over Cap budgets and Defra’s decision to split with England, Wales and Northern Ireland some £190million of extra EU support which the UK only qualified for because of Scotland’s poor payment rates.
The NFU raised issues over proposals which could see 15% of direct support payments being transferred to address funding shortfalls in rural development budgets. Mr Adam said the NFU view was that any transfer of that scale was unacceptable, although it is now almost inevitable that the Scottish Government will take the cash following the Defra decision which crofters have branded a political heist.
Renewable energy issues and problems with grid connections, Scottish Government proposals to give secure farm tenants the absolute right to buy their farms, a beak trimming ban for chickens and the need to rebase the less-favoured area support scheme to bring payments in line with actual farm activity were brought up during the talks too.
The politicians were asked to provide a statement after the meeting, but only Mr Baker commented.
He said: “It is clear there are many challenges faced by farmers in the north-east at the moment and it is important there is the right political response. I will be raising concerns with UK ministers around the Cap funding issues for Scotland and with Scottish ministers on the concerns over the 2 Sisters situation.”