Britain's poultry industry has received a political boost after the Farming Minister said she had been impressed with the careful treatment of the birds throughout her visit to Lincolnshire.

Speaking after the visit Ms Kennedy said: “I’ve really enjoyed the experience. I’ve had a look at the whole poultry food chain from farm to fork. It’s been extremely interesting and it’s given me the chance to understand some of the business pressures on the different sectors, especially the organic farmers.”

The visit, organised by the British Poultry Council on Wednesday (4 February), came just a week after she announced plans to implement Europe's first comprehensive welfare rules for chickens raised for meat.

Ms Kennedy said: “I think assurance schemes are a good thing, and I definitely don’t want people to think that the new EU rules in some way do away with or replace voluntary assurance schemes. 

 “What we do have now are new European rules, which for the first time provide a legal baseline for all producers – including those who don’t participate in any voluntary assurance schemes.  And that means that other European producers will have to meet that legal baseline as well, meaning that our producers will have a more level playing field in the UK and European markets.”

The Minister visited an assured chicken production farm near Lincoln, run by Hook2Sisters, and an organic farm managed by Harry Irwin during the morning. The afternoon was spent at 2 Sisters processing facility in Scunthorpe, which processes about 1.8m chickens a week and employs more than 1,000 people.

The Chief Executive of the British Poultry Council, Peter Bradnock, said: “The Farming Minister was given a guided tour along the chicken supply chain, from which she pledged to work with the producers and processors to address their core concerns.”

Ms Kennedy added: “I heard first hand of the concerns that are preoccupying the industry, from the proposed requirement to inspect every flock to the burden of regulation that face small specialist producers through to the collapse of the organic free range market.”

-ENDS-

Notes-to-editors:

• The British Poultry Council is the leading representative organization for companies and individuals engaged in breeding, hatching, rearing and processing chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese to produce poultry meat.

BPC 16/02/2009