Meat sales back to pre-BSE levels (From Western Telegraph)

Meat sales back to pre-BSE levels

Meat consumption has returned to levels last seen in Pembrokeshire before the BSE crisis.

A survey of eating habits confirmed this week that more red meat is eaten than at any time since 1985.

Pembrokeshire's butchers and livestock farmers are united in their belief that consumer confidence in beef had never been higher.

Beef and lamb producer Brian Ratcliffe, said the quality of British meat was the best in the world.

As the farming industry had contracted, there were fewer farmers producing better meat, he believed.

"The farmers who remain in the industry are working with the retailing side to produce exactly what the consumer wants,'' said Mr Ratcliffe, of Colby Farm, Wiston. "They are doing a far better job, producing a superior quality carcass.''

Butchers confirmed that sales were buoyant, with beef being the number one seller. Motts Butchers, in Main Street, Pembroke, sources most of its livestock from producers in west Wales. The stock is slaughtered at Haverfordwest and Llanelli abattoirs.

Mike Mott welcomed the survey findings but was not surprised. "I don't think sales have ever really dropped. Consumers have confidence in their local butcher to give them top quality meat which has been locally sourced and slaughtered.''

According to Meat and Livestock Commission figures, we now consume 985,000 tons of beef a year, a third of which is imported.

But reliance on imports will fall when the government starts phasing out the over thirty month rule, possibly as early as next January.

The fear that consumer confidence will be dented when meat from older animals returns to the food chain was unwarranted, believed Brian Ratcliffe.

"Forty per cent of beef is currently imported from countries where there are no controls. It would be far better to have good quality beef that is produced in a country that has the toughest controls in the world.''

Picture: beef is the top seller at Motts Butchers, Pembroke, says Mike Mott, pictured here with a customer. PICTURE: Western Telegraph (WTNO1145S03).