UK: Edward Brown (GIRA) projects potential boost for Welsh red meat producers

"On the whole, it’s a positive story at the moment; farmgate prices are really strong and that’s because of the fundamental underlying strong demand when, at the same time, supplies are staying relatively tight", said Edward Brown, Consultant at GIRA. "So, from the prices point of view, it’s relatively positive in the short-term outlook". Setting the scene, Mr. Brown said in recent years, the global red meat industry had suffered a number of "disrupters", including ASF, HPAI, Covid, El Nino weather pattern and drought. "In China, for instance, ASF reduced the pig stock by half- and to show the importance of that, China had half of the global pig stock before that happened". Mr. Brown said high quality beef and lamb was in strong global demand, and especially with Welsh Lamb and Welsh Beef’s most significant export customer, the European Union. “This demand is likely to remain because EU production is going to continue to become tighter. Flock data over the past decade suggests EU ...