A clear focus on the end consumer is often lacking within the farming sector, but better collaboration and data use could significantly improve British beef quality and farm sustainability, according to Gavin Hodgson, buying manager for meat, fish and poultry at Sainsbury’s.
Speaking at the Oxford Farming Conference, Hodgson said: “Top businesses live and breathe their customer – everything they do leads back to the customer. We need a customer-obsessed supply web so we can deliver what we need going forward.”
The panel also featured Phil Bicknell, market intelligence director at AHDB, who highlighted a £50,000 difference in profit between the top and bottom quartile of producers, which demonstrates the scope for improvement.
“Only the changes we make on farm will give us the resilience we need for the future. We need to be more customer and market focused, rather than just producing a product and hoping to sell it.”
He said: “That is not down to scale or resources – most of it is down to business decisions and actions.”
As the Basic Payment Scheme is phased out in England, the average lowland livestock farmer will receive £17,928 in support payments in 2020, dropping to £8,964 in 2024 and zero in 2028. “In the long run, the big challenge is around preparing for a future with no direct payments,” said Bicknell. “Only the changes we make on farm will give us the resilience we need for the future. We need to be more customer and market focused, rather than just producing a product and hoping to sell it.”
Ian Wheal, founder of farming-app Breedr, added that one difficulty is sharing data from the end user back to the primary producer, which can often involve several different farms: “There are a number of barriers to achieving the true potential of British beef production, and collaboration is one of them.”
