Reliance On Meat Imports Grows

UK - Manufacturing industries in the UK have been in decline for many years, with the economy increasingly focused on the financial sector.
calendar icon 27 November 2007
clock icon 2 minute read

The general assumption has been that this was a natural progression in the face of cheap labour in the developing world.

Figures just released give a serious pointer to just how dependent the UK is now becoming on food imports, especially red meat and poultry. HM Revenue and Customs reckons that in the first nine months of this year imports of beef totalled 176,289 tonnes, an increase of more than 4,000 tonnes on the same period of 2006.

But that has to be considered in the context of the export statistics over the January to September period. In those months of 2007, which were severely hit by export restrictions following four cases of foot-and-mouth disease in Surrey, the outward trade in beef amounted to 45,288 tonnes.

This was almost 50 per higher than in the same months of the previous year, which obviously sounds positive. However, as every farmer and meat processor knows, trading conditions were extremely difficult during most of 2006.

Source: Scotsman.com
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