Learning from the British Beef Industry

Learning from the British Beef Industry VALUE CHAIN MANAGEMENT CENTRE Page 1 of 9 www.valuechains.ca In conjunction with Ontario Cattlemen’s Association, the Value Chain Management Centre facilitated a visit to the British beef industry. The purpose of the visit was to provide senior industry representatives with the opportunity to view first‐hand the strategic approaches that innovative leaders of the UK industry are taking to improve the production and marketing of beef. A series of factors, including food safety incidents such as BSE, continuing changes in subsidy payments, and industry consolidation, are driving changes in how British beef is produced, processed and marketed. While the British beef industry is different to Ontario’s industry in a number of ways, it also shares many similarities. The similarities include a large number of small fragmented producers, a consolidated retail and processing sector, and how inconsistencies in quality are impacting the industry’s success. These similarities mean than the changes that are afoot in Britain provide considerable learning opportunities for Ontario’s beef industry. How the British and Canadian beef sectors differ include the fact that much of the UK beef sector is focused on cross breeding dairy cows with beef breeds, British beef is generally less marbled, and that there is less focus on international markets. The greatest challenge facing the UK beef industry is inconsistency in the composition of finished animals. Stemming largely from a fragmented base of 63,000 producers, this inconsistency creates unnecessary costs that must be passed onto consumers. It also negatively impacts the quality of beef, and the value consumers attribute to beef versus alternative meats. These factors lead to a greater price differential existing between beef compared to chicken and beef than would otherwise exist, and an inability to justify higher prices by showing itself as able to provide a consistently superior eating experience compared to chicken and pork.