Mr Kendall was speaking at the Egg and Poultry Industry Conference in Warwickshire.

He said: “Poultry represents the biggest meat sector in the UK and must continue to demonstrate why it should be seen as an exciting, innovative industry that is increasingly competitive while at the same time building capacity to feed a growing UK population.

“Let’s create an environment which really means poultry businesses have the confidence and opportunity to invest. Let’s address market failure and iron-out volatility to enable the entire food supply chain to grow.

“The horsemeat scandal earlier this year also presented a fantastic opportunity as supermarkets look to shorten their supply chains and stock more British produce. Consumers are increasingly showing their support for British farming so we need to continue to promote British poultry as an affordable, healthy, versatile protein food.

“There will be difficulties to overcome in delivering this exciting future - a fair and better functioning supply chain will be key to getting transparency and putting more British food on more British plates, overcoming planning issues to create high welfare sheds, we need to access competitively priced feed, but most of all we must be able to attract young people to this technological sector. We must work together to ensure any breaks in these developments are addressed as speedily as possible.

“I’m really optimistic that the poultry industry can embrace these challenges and has a bright future.”