South West Food & Drink

Meat South West

About Us

Meat South West brings farmers, abattoirs, processors and associated industries together in one organisation to improve dialogue, put buyers in touch with suppliers and help resolve industry supply problems.

20% of Britain's cattle and 10% of its sheep and pigs are reared in the South West. Profitable livestock production is crucial to our region's farmers, to all those who enjoy our beautiful countryside, value the diverse wildlife within it, and support the economy of the region.

A profitable livestock industry will only be achieved if producers, abattoirs and processors work together as one industry to produce what our customers want and to position the South West as the best source of high quality meat. Meat South West can achieve this if all sectors work together and take ownership of the organisation.

Meat South West Goals

To improve product quality and market position
To improve quality of service to our customers
To improve profitability of all sectors of the industry

Why You Should Join

By joining Meat South West you can be involved in ensuring that the South West becomes renowned for producing safe, traceable meat of consistently high quality. Produced to high environmental and welfare standards.

Membership is open to abattoirs, processors and producers as well as suppliers of goods and services to the industry (affiliate members) and buyers of the region's meat (associate members).

The application form gives details of membership fees and can be downloaded from this site.

Download the Membership Application Form

How is Meat South West Funded?

Meat South West is part of South West Food & Drink and is funded by them together with the English Beef & Lamb Executive (eBLEX) and industry membership.

What Does Meat South West Do?

Meat South West operates a programme of activity that has been agreed after extensive and ongoing consultation with the members. This activity is broken down into three main areas:

Communication
Supply chain development
Trade marketing

Communication between all sectors of the supply chain, and its customers is crucial to the industry. Meat South West facilitates this dialogue. Meat South West also maintains good communication with its members to ensure that its programmes continue to meet industry needs and that the organisation remains industry-focused and industry-led.

Meat South West is a valuable source of information. Click on our Meat South West downloads.

There are also separate guides for beef, sheep and pigs and they list sources of technical information, which could help livestock producers to improve their technical and financial performance. To view these guides now, please select one of the following:

In order to keep its members informed, Meat South West has commissioned a report mapping the movements of livestock into and out of the region. The report, "Mapping of the South West Red Meat Industry" gives detailed information on livestock availability in the region, livestock movements and abattoir capacity, as well as data on both retail and food service consumption. Flow charts map the supply chains for beef, sheepmeat and pigmeat, detailing the links between production, slaughtering and consumption.

Supply Chain Development. Meat South West is investigating ways in which sectors of the industry can become more efficient by improving the linkages between them in order to produce a more dynamic industry that can respond to new challenges and market opportunities.

Meat South West is involved in a range of supply chain programmes, and is working closely with the Red Meat Industry Forum in this area. Examples include:

Work on improving electronic data transfer between abattoirs and producers so that data can be downloaded automatically onto producer's own management software, or onto the databases of producer co-operatives.
Production of an abattoir checklist for producers to use before their cattle leave the farm to ensure that they have all the correct paperwork in place and to avoid problems when they reach the lairage.
Identifying problems faced by producers who sell direct to retail, as well as finding solutions.
Producing a directory of meat suppliers to help caterers find good, regional sources of meat.
Ensuring that producers and abattoirs know and understand each other's requirements and problems.
Developing an effective method of collecting, collating and disseminating information to producers to help them improve their technical and business performance.
Working with partners to provide livestock producers with a planned approach to animal health.

Trade Marketing. The South West is one of the UK's most favoured areas for livestock production. Its mild climate and long growing season allow livestock an extended period of natural grazing each year. A network of family farms coupled with skilled stockmen and butchers, produce our tasty, succulent meat.

In partnership with eBLEX, Meat South West is supporting a number of quality brand initiatives in the South West, both with major retailers and more local suppliers. In order to accrue maximum benefit from its trade marketing programme Meat South West is seeking to develop a quality endorsement mark for South West meat. This will be a quality mark with a clear product specification attached to it, in order to inform our customers on all aspects of production. The South West is rightly proud of the quality of its meat and of the standard of environmental and animal care used to produce it. As a region we have not been good at telling people about it. Meat South West is helping to correct this.

Last Updated: 29th February 2008