Local meat trade under threat
Without urgent action to stem the collapse of the small abattoir sector, the marketing of locally-produced, traceable meat will no longer be possible in many parts of the country.
That was the stark conclusion of a major UK report into the availability of such facilities which highlighted the need to set up mobile abattoirs to meet demand from producers who wished to either sell their own meat direct, or supply local produce to independent butchers and restaurants.
The review produced by the Sustainable Food Trust was published yesterday, only weeks after it was announced that two small abattoirs serving the sector had closed in Scotland – a council-owned abattoir in Kirkwall and a long-standing commercial unit Dunblane.
The report pointed out that over the last decade one in three small abattoirs in the UK had closed – and that the overall number had slumped from just under 2,000 facilities in 1971 to under 250 today, many of which were unsuitable for providing sales of local meat.
“For producer-retailers in some parts of the country this is already causing logistical and financial problems,” said Richard Young, policy director of the SFT and a co-author of the report.
“The reasons for the continuing closures include the disproportionately high burden of regulation imposed on small abattoirs, falling cattle numbers nationally and the currently very low and often negative profitability of the sector due to the increasing dominance of supermarkets.”
Commenting on the lack of local facilities, one farmer in the North-east of Scotland said: “If we sell direct to Morrisons we go to the abattoir at Turriff about 32 miles away. But to do a private kill we would have to go to Dingwall which is about 150 miles!
“So, we no longer are able to market our meat direct to the consumer as it is not feasible financially, even though we have a ready and willing market for our produce.”
The STF called for government recognition that action was needed to address the problem and to investigate the use of mobile abattoirs to help reduce the stifling effects which such closures were having in many of the country’s grazing areas.