Great tasting fresh British lamb is now readily available and the NFU wants to see more retailers promoting it in peak season.
The NFU and British sheep farmers are concerned that some retailers are still failing to back British farming and not putting British lamb front and centre in their stores and promoting it to customers.
The NFU is asking retailers to back British farming by:
> giving our peak season lamb pride of place on their shelves
> helping consumers to choose British by clear product labelling and placement
> promote that our lamb is now in its peak season.
The NFU is encouraging its members to tweet pictures of retailers failing to give lamb pride of place on their shelves in our peak season. Please remember to include @NFUtweets or #BackBritishFarming in your tweets and we will retweet and collect them for an online gallery.
Many retailers will openly discuss the issue on Twitter. If members get a reply they should feel free to continue to ask questions regarding the promotion of British lamb.
NFU livestock board chairman Charles Sercombe said: “I believe I speak for all livestock farmers when I say that I am bitterly disappointed to see that, at a time of year when there is an ample supply of fresh, tender and delicious new season lamb available, some retailers are failing to live up to their commitments to support British farming.
“This year has seen an excellent growing season for lamb, and you would think that this would be reflected on the shelves. Instead, as the photos we have been receiving from members show, facings are still failing to promote this fantastic meat at the peak time of year. The strength of feeling farmers have on this was shown at the Royal Welsh this summer.
“We want to see our world leading British lamb promoted in its peak season. We know that consumers want to buy British – so let’s see our lamb given pride of place on the shelves, with clear labelling and product placement, so consumers can easily identify our peak season product. Morrison’s has been leading the way on backing British farmers, and we applaud them for their commitment to stock 100 per cent British lamb all year round for their own-label products
“Buying Red Tractor fresh British lamb means buying a safe, assured, traceable product that helps maintain the iconic British landscape. I believe it has a bright future, and we continue to see an increase in global demand for our superb product, but in order to have the confidence to invest in this future farmers need to know that they have the backing of our domestic retailers, and if you walk down an aisle in a supermarket and don’t see evidence of this, it does not send the right message at all.”
