Shooting Times & Country Magazine
Taking stock of the market
Game dealers are set to face one of the most challenging seasons yet, says Nick James
It hardly needs to be said that the aftermath of COVID-19 is going to have a seismic impact on the game market this season. All indications at the moment suggest that the volume of game that is going to be shot and placed into the food chain is likely to be some 60-65% of last season’s total. The effect of lockdown, social distancing and, in some cases, Guns not being able, or not feeling financially secure enough, to pay shoot deposits have contributed to this.
Some shoots will not be shooting at all, others will have reduced both the number of days and the number of birds and many may start later. What is still unclear is the question of grouse, particularly north of the Border. The numbers look to be good in certain areas but will there be
Guns to shoot them? At the time of writing, things are starting to look a bit more positive, with hotels, such as Gleneagles in Scotland, having announced that they will reopen on 15 July, but people don’t tend to book grouse shooting a mere month in advance and the overseas market will pretty much be a write-off.
Grouse need to be shot when the numbers are high, but will there be a hungry market for this specialised and unique gamebird if elements of the hotel, restaurant and catering businesses (HRC) remain closed or are forced to operate at much-reduced capacity? Around 80% are sold within this sector, so it’s a legitimate concern.
Supermarkets pay a certain degree of lip service to feathered game but they will certainly not take up the slack created by a flagging HRC sector.
“Supermarkets pay a degree of lip service to feathered game but won’t take up the slack created by the flagging HRC sector”
Added to this, there are still a lot of nervous people out there. Will they return to eating out as before? Shooting hitherto brought in
£2bn to the rural economy — it won’t this season.
The UK provides the finest and most varied driven game shooting in the world. But still we do not consume all the game that is shot. However, we do have an appreciative market from the Continent, which buys our game in healthy volumes. Export sales take in around 50% of the annual figure, with Belgium, Holland and Germany being key purchasers, and the Far East having recently entered the market, too.
Last season, even with an additional 5% pheasants and partridges being put out by shoots, little stock has actually remained with National Game Dealers Association processors. Initiatives from the British Game Alliance
(BGA) have also helped to stimulate the introduction of game to new consumers. But it still remains unappealing to many. The ‘I don’t like it but I’ve never tried it’ brigade are large in number. I therefore do not see a huge problem over sales
It’s great that some companies in the food business have seen this as a real opportunity. Proper fresh vegetables, delivered to your door, have been but a ‘click’ away for some time. Happily, companies such as Wild & Game have now made this possible for game, too.
Its well-presented, quality produce has found many new direct consumers over recent weeks. Stephen Frampton, the company’s director, reported a four-fold sales increase as customers have experimented with ‘home restaurant’ cooking.
If you thought that some of this was going well – and do let’s remain positive – there is another factor looming on the horizon: Brexit. Currently game passes freely onto the Continent, both in feather and processed, but the practice of selling in the feather could soon become more difficult. We will be OK for this season but, if tariffs are introduced, will consumption fall there as price points are exceeded?
Handling game
May I make a plea to shoot owners? The handling of game in the field and larder has been an issue over recent years as it is perceived in some quarters to have little value once shot. Do now please take much more care of it and heed the BGA’S initiatives for handling game in the field.
In addition, the larger the pheasant, the better. Running a processing plant is an expensive business at the best of times and the likes of the smaller Blue Backs cost the same to process but deliver far less meat. People say they fly higher – but I say it’s merely an optical illusion.
Ultimately, we shouldn’t despair. The sales of feathered game should not be a problem this season. The price might rise by a few pence a bird but now is certainly not the time to make any dramatic price increase as we will deliver ourselves a problem next season. Increase prices gently but best to add value to the product and make it more accessible and exciting to the potential new consumer. For instance, Willo Game does well with the likes of lime and coriander marinated breasts.
Liam Stokes, the new CEO of the BGA, shares my enthusiasm. He believes there will be a slow restart for the HRC sector but that the crisis may have driven people towards ‘conscious consumption’. Either way, he thinks, as you’d expect, if the quality of game can be improved via the BGA assurance scheme, the benefits to the sector will be huge.
Nobody should be in any sort of denial that venison is set to be a problem until the HRC sector is fully opened up and customers return once again, but it is time to take stock rather than to panic. Before COVID-19 hit, things were heading in the right direction and we need to pull together to get back on track. Leaving Europe provides challenges but I’m sure the British people are much keener on the idea of a bit of Shropshire partridge than a born-inthe-usa chlorinated chicken.