On the way to a full-range supplier and service provider

Meat marketing in transition

The cooperative meat marketers are preparing for a rapidly increasing demand for self-service fresh meat and convenience products. Fine cutting and the expansion of self-service meat production determine the future structures on a food market characterized by international trading companies. This increases the concentration on a few but always deliverable producers who inevitably have to be of a certain size. The participants of the 14th symposium for the cooperative livestock and meat industry on 28/29 discussed possible ways to become a full-range supplier and service provider for the food trade. October in Lahnstein.

At the beginning of the event, Raiffeisen President Manfred Nüssel criticized the agricultural policy framework that is to be changed in the course of the EU agricultural reform. In the current discussions about the national implementation, the companies are missing market policy aspects and above all a thorough analysis of the effects on the sales markets. Should there be a complete decoupling of producer premiums from 2005, beef production in Germany will fall drastically in the medium term.

If the demand for beef remained unchanged, the result would be a loss of market and value-added shares. Nüssel advocates using all options for partial decoupling of individual bonus elements and orienting itself towards the national implementation of the EU states. “The already problematic situation of German beef marketing must not be exacerbated any further. This EU agricultural reform will only contribute to a more market orientation if competition neutrality between the member states, regions, types of operation and production is maintained ”, said Nüssel at the DRV symposium in Lahnstein, which was attended by around 100 responsible persons from livestock and meat cooperatives.

Source: Lahnstein [drv]