Poultry Farmers Lobby Ministers and MPs over IPPC

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Poultry farmers from are set to lobby MPs at the House of Commons today to get a three-year waiver on costs for the new Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control regulations.

In a joint campaign led by BPC, British Egg Industry Council and the National Farmers Union, ministers and parliamentarians are being made aware of the economic climate and fragility of the industry with regards to external threats. It is because of this situation, exacerbated by avian influenza, that poultry farmers simply cannot afford the costs for the fees associated with this regulation.

The industry is not against the implementation of the regulation. We can see the benefits of the proposed controls, many of which are already good practice. However, the costs of compliance with some measures will be high, too high for some poultry farmers who could be put out of business altogether.

The regulation applies to farms of more than 40,000 poultry (including chickens, pullets, laying hens, turkeys, ducks and guinea fowl). It will take £4 million from hard-pressed poultry farmers in Environment Agency application charges by Christmas. A further £3 million in EA subsistence charges will be payable by poultry farmers the EA every year. These are UK-only charges and do not include the high capital investment estimated by DEFRA needed to comply with the IPPC requirements.

Poultry farmers and industry representatives are meeting with their MP as soon as possible and will be taking part in the lobby on the 25 October to discuss the issue and how it affects their personal circumstances. The joint campaign will hold a meeting for attendees to the lobby of Parliament; the BPC Chairman, NFU President and BEIC Vice-Chairman will also be speaking to ministers about the issue.

-ENDS-

Notes-to-Editors:

• The NFU, the British Poultry Council (BPC) and the British Egg Industry Council (BEIC) are united in calling for a three year moratorium of payment of Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) charges because of crippling price pressures and no affordability.

• Farmers must apply for an IPPC permit between 1 November 2006 and 31 January 2007. About 1200 applications are expected from the pig and poultry sectors.

• Current IPPC charges are of the order of: £3331 for the application fee (the cost demanded by the EA for a permit); and £2229 - £2794 (depending on size) for the annual fee.

• The NFU and BPC report, British Chicken – What Price?’ suggests that many farms will be out of business in the short-term. Some businesses may be experiencing losses of £25,000 per flock (based on 140,000 birds). As a result, the high costs of the forthcoming IPPC regulations are unaffordable by the poultry farming sector, and are unsustainable in the longer term. .

BPC October 2006