Sector groups - chicken sector

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Chicken is largest group within the Council, farming around 16 million birds every week for consumption in the UK. The Chicken Group represents companies across the food chain, from farming through processing, to retail sales.

The sector has been one of the most successful British food industries since the Second World War and has increased in output significantly, without the subsidies from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy which have cushioned changes in other farming sectors.

In 1953, production stood at 5m chickens a year, between 1986-88 total average production was 590m, between 1994– 96 this increased to 778m (Agriculture in the United Kingdom, DEFRA 2005). In 2007 this is now over 860 million, accounting for 40% of the primary meat market. Some 5% of the national chicken flock is produced on outside rearing premises (free-range and organic) and both of these markets are growing steadily. Poultry is one of the largest sources of organically reared meat.

Chicken Growers

The Growers Group focuses on the agricultural and technical aspects of our chicken producing Member Companies, along with representatives from chicken primary breeding companies and associated feed and nutruition suppliers.The group is a forum for best practice and advises the Council on any issues affecting chicken farming.

BPC/NFU Flock Farmers

Britian’s flock farmers are engaged in rearing breeding birds and sending their eggs back into the hatchery to be reared as meat birds. Some flock farming will be done by company owned farms but the majority is now a contracted-out business. Recognising this, BPC and the National Farmers' Union set up a specific group to advise flock farmers and to represent their interests alongside those of the intergrated companies.