British Frozen Food Federation

Unity, Information and Collective Strength

 

FARMING AND FOOD - THE FUTURE

AAC/if                                                                                                      26 October 2001

Stephen Steele
Food Standards Agency
Aviation House
125 Kingsway
LONDON
WC2B 6NH

By e-mail to: talkfood@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk

Dear Sir,

Farming and Food - the Future

I am responding to your consultation document of 25 September on behalf of the British Frozen Food Federation. The Federation represents a broad spectrum of membership, all involved in the frozen food sector, including producers, importers, wholesalers, distributors, and retailers.  We therefore consider that we represent a particularly wide range of activities throughout the food supply chain, without any narrow sectoral focus; I would ask that our response should be seen in that light, as representing a considered position on behalf of around 300 member companies with an industry turnover of around £7 billion in retail and foodservice.

The British Frozen Food Federation submission deliberately focuses only on farming as a supply base into part of the UK’s food production and distribution chain. The submission does not cover those areas of food production and distribution which source raw materials and finished products from outside of the UK farming supply base.

We feel that the key issues needed to be taken into consideration by the commission are as follows.

  • The future of farming and food production in the UK will be determined by the consumers’ attitude towards the quality of the finished product, coupled with their view of the safety of the product in terms of guaranteed food hygiene. It therefore seems crucial to take this into consideration at every stage in reviewing the future for the industry, right back to farming and the integrity of the raw materials leaving the farm.

  • Consideration of the supply chain as a whole is absolutely crucial.

  • Food production and distribution in the UK has gone through massive positive changes over the last decades. These positive changes have been financed by the companies themselves in each sector of the industry.

We feel that it is time for the farming industry to embrace those same major changes if, as raw material suppliers, if it is to be able to take on a much more instrumental role in the success of the whole food chain.

We recognise the financial difficulties currently faced by farmers and it may be the job of government to effectively lead and initially finance a strategy of efficiency for the future.

However, once this has been achieved, we feel that it is essential that the farming sector actively joins a supply chain driven by consumers and their demands. In a fiercely competitive global market, the impact of trading competition must be realised by the farmers/primary producers, free of artificial parameters reinforced by the CAP.

  • Recent cases of unethical activities by traders in live animals and by other middlemen handling unfit poultry meat have added to high levels of public concern about food safety in general through exposure in the national media. These gaps need to be closed by the introduction of a firm system of standards, surveillance, and enforcement, along the same lines as the steps which have been taken at food production premises in recent years.

  • We would like to emphasise that rural food production should be maintained in the future. Farming in the UK provides an essential source of raw material for food production, and there will continue to be an undoubted demand provided that farming is efficient and food safety can be guaranteed.

  • Like any modern business sector, farming will have to face up to the fact that there will be some areas of activity that will have potential for profit and sustainability, but others that will not. It would seem necessary to apply normal commercial measurements in this situation, and ensure that there is no longer any artificial support for areas of activity which do not have a real chance of achieving profit and sustainability in even the medium term future.

  • It is essential that the work finally undertaken to develop farming and the food chain should be conscious of the need to promote the competitiveness of UK products, both in the home market and in potential export markets.

With global trading in mind, it is important that when regulatory initiatives are proposed at the national UK level, these should be compatible with equivalent European legislation, and, wherever possible, globally compatible.

I do hope that these comments prove helpful; please do not hesitate to contact me if you would wish me to elaborate on any of the comments that I have made.

Yours sincerely,

A.A. CARR

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