Cost of production is soaring and not being recovered in the marketplace, thereby jeopardising long-term UK security, business viability, and economic growth. The rising cost of energy, feed, labour, fuel, water, trade, transport, packaging, and red-tape, with the burden of avian influenza, means production of British poultry meat is shrinking and access to food risks becoming one of the greatest challenges we face as a nation.

Collaboration between Government and industry should set the precedent where healthy and profitable domestic production is necessary for our food security. Without a fair market price that prioritises the value of supply for both producers and consumers, it is only a matter of time before British poultry sees empty shelves of our own during this cost-of-living crisis.

It is Government’s responsibility to ensure the right mechanisms are in place to support business viability, and to show leadership in its own buying practices, so that safe, affordable, nutritious British poultry meat remains widely available and accessible. As a society we should be promoting British food and the quality it represents into areas like our care homes, schools, and hospitals with a view to investing in public procurement as a driver for a food system based on fair returns. Unfortunately, price trumps supply and instead of setting a good example for the broader marketplace we have a bad example that is driving British food producers out of business.

When support is mentioned, Governments tend to default to subsidies, schemes, grants, and allowances, whereas here it means Government being a responsible purchaser and requiring others to be the same. For everyone to eat well and for domestic production to succeed and be sustainable, all roads lead back to a level playing field, which includes:

• Consistent production standards that are competitive on the global stage
• Equitable approach to import controls for UK-EU trade
• UK sustainability targets that prioritise food production
• Government buying food to the standards/specifications it sets
• A fair price paid for food that allows producers to cover costs, invest, and grow

Our Prime Minister has assured farmers and producers that will “have what they need” in support of healthy and profitable domestic production, but what producers “need” is for Government to put their money where their mouth is. The operating environment is only growing more hostile, and we need measures that prioritise supply, support producers, feed the nation, and ensure the marketplace respects the true cost of food. Otherwise, it is only a matter of time before we see British poultry meat producers undercut by cheaper imports, shrinking domestic production, and pricing consumers out of British food and the quality it represents at a time it matters most.