Processors and retailers asked to take a long term view
Processors and retailers asked to take a long term view
NFU livestock board chairman, Charles Sercombe, has made a plea to retailers and processors to avoid sending negative signals to farmers and ensure a stabilisation of farmgate prices.
Sercombe said: “The boom bust cycle of pricing is not in the interests of the farmer, processor or retailer.” He warned that whilst an improvement in farm returns had been evident in the past 12 months a sustainable supply chain was vital to enable producers to continue to invest with confidence. “Old season lambs are filtering out of the market now and, despite a weakening of the Euro, long-term supply and demand fundamentals have changed little. Current prices should be rewarding farmers for bringing in spec lamb to market.
“We need retailers and processors to act in the best interests of the whole chain and work to stabilise the lamb market.”
