England's meat and livestock industry is facing increasing challenges from global competition. To help improve the industry's competitive position, the Red Meat Industry Forum has been awarded a Defra Agriculture Development Scheme grant of £345,000. The project is designed to identify best practice examples of livestock production and processing around the world and to extract lessons that can be applied for the benefit of the English industry. It also aims to show how business improvement techniques can help to improve industry efficiency levels.
RMIF Chairman Peter Barr said: "Ensuring we apply best practice and relevant lessons from other countries for the benefit of livestock producers is a vital element of RMIF's work in improving the red meat industry's competitiveness. "I am delighted that Defra has provided financial support for this vital activity. It should help speed up improvements in the competitive position of the English livestock production and processing industry." The RMIF has strong support from several industry bodies for this project and will be working closely with the English Beef and Lamb Executive (EBLEX), British Pig Executive (BPEX) and the National Farmers' Union (NFU) to implement the activity.