The government's newly announced funding to be made available to small abattoirs will be 'integral' to the future of local and sustainable farming, campaigners have said.
At the NFU Conference, Defra farming minister Mark Spencer unveiled plans to roll out funding to promote smaller, rural abattoirs.
Campaigners at the Sustainable Food Trust, a group which has been promoting the issue for years, said the funding would be 'vital' for small abattoirs to 'modernise and thrive'.
There has been a huge decline in small abattoirs in recent years, with the most recent estimates showing only 49 remain in England, Wales and Scotland.
If closures continued at the current rate, none would be operating by 2030, according to the Sustainable Food Trust.
At the NFU Conference, Minister Spencer said: “If farming is to flourish then we need to get the fundamentals right - abattoirs are key to the food supply chain and there is clearly a need to support smaller providers in this area.
"The availability of funding will help abattoirs to invest in new technology and improve productivity and animal health and welfare, allowing our agriculture sector to get its high-quality produce to market.”
The new funding, to be announced in full later this year, will help those abattoirs to add value by supporting the availability of local produce.
It will also help small abattoirs provide specific equipment to support the rearing of rare and native breeds, as well as encourage rural employment.
The Sustainable Food Trust said the funding was 'welcome news' as it would be "integral to the future of local, sustainable and high welfare farming".
The group added that other critical issues, around regulation and inspection in particular, should be looked at and tackled in the coming months.
Megan Perry, head of policy and campaigns said: “We are grateful to the Ministers and government officials who have shown a willingness to listen to those from industry and understand the important role that abattoirs play.
"Funding will be vital to help the small abattoirs modernise and thrive. Their services are the cornerstone of sustainable, local meat supply chains.”
The SFT has been campaigning alongside National Craft Butchers since 2018 to reverse the trend in declining small abattoirs.
In 2020, the group was a co-founder of the Abattoir Sector Group, set up to provide a unified voice for the small and local abattoir sector.
