Supermarkets Respond to Committee Concerns on Polish Beef Imports

Declan McAleer MLA
Room 244 Parliament Buildings
Ballymiscaw
Stormont
Belfast
BT4 3XX

Waterside House
35 North Wharf Road
London
W2 1NW

20 April 2020

Thank you for writing to us on this important matter.

In what has been the most volatile and challenging period any of us can remember in food retail, this is a good opportunity to write and reassure you of M&S’s continuing support for farming in Northern Ireland.

Let me start by putting on record our thanks for the support we have received from our supply chain and our Select Farm farming community in Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. By working together, we have managed to maintain continuity of supply despite unpredictable, uneven trade patterns and play our part in feeding the nation. This has not been easy for any of us, and we and our suppliers still face big challenges in logistics, anticipating and managing demand and supporting our colleagues and managing higher levels of absence.

Our strategy at M&S Food is to protect the magic while modernising the areas on which we need to focus. At its core, protecting that magic is about protecting the quality and provenance of our food; and the strength and longevity of our supplier partnerships. Therefore, despite these challenges, our support for Northern Ireland farming will not waiver and our long-standing commitment to UK agriculture will not change. I therefore wanted to set out for you with clarity and transparency how we are supporting the beef sector at this time.

All of our beef is sourced from 5,100 UK Select Farms (including 1112 in Northern Ireland) we know and trust, and through our Beef DNA programme we can trace all our beef products back to farm and individual animal. M&S was the first retailer to source and market Aberdeen Angus beef as a differentiated tier to create a market premium which was passed back to our Select Farmers. Our commitment to Northern Irish beef remains a strong as ever and I would like to reassure you we have not and will not source our beef from outside of the UK.

We know there is much mention of carcass imbalance in the media. However at M&S our cattle kill is up week on year, and our investment in product innovation means our carcass balance has improved with new product design and we’re able to offer our customers an exciting range of products to help drive increased volume through our stores. In-store you’ll see increased sales activity on steaks, e.g. from Wednesday we have a shelf end promotion on Steak and Chips, and we’re ranging steak in our dine-in promotions going forward. I’m pleased to tell you that the net effect of the steps that we are taking has seen our cattle demand increase by circa 5% since the Government’s Lockdown came into force; all supplied by our 5,100 UK Select Farms.