On June 23rd, 2016, the population of the United Kingdom (UK) decided to leave the EU. Even though it is not yet possible to predict what impacts this decision will have on the poultry industry of the UK, it surprises that there are hardly any scientific papers which deal with the embedding of egg and poultry meat production and trade in the EU; all the more when considering the role of the UK poultry industry in the EU. In 2015, the UK ranked in second place among the member countries with a production of 1.4 mill. t of broiler meat and in fifth place with a production volume of 10 billion eggs. This paper tries to fill the gap, focusing on the dynamics in production and trade between 2010 and 2015.
Patterns of laying hen husbandry and egg production in the UK
Low self-sufficiency required increasing imports
The result was a growth of the imports by 264 mill. eggs or 16.2 %. The highest import volume with almost 2 billion eggs was reached in 2012, a consequence of the changes in the housing systems. Egg exports are comparatively low in relation to the imports. Because of the growing imports, the negative trade balance increased by 24.2 % between 2010 and 2015. While the imports reached a volume of 1.53 billion eggs in 2010, they were as high as 1.89 billion pieces in 2014.
Main countries of origin for the imports in 2014 were the Netherlands, Denmark, France and Germany. They contributed more than 98 % to the total imports. Ireland, the Netherlands and Germany shared 98 % in the egg exports of the UK. These data alone shows the involvement of the UK in the trade flows with eggs in the UK.
Considerable growth of poultry meat production and consumption
With a production volume of 1.7 mill. t, the UK ranked in second place behind Poland among the poultry meat producing countries of the EU in 2015. Between 2010 and 2015, poultry meat production grew by 122,000 t or 7.8 %. To this growth broiler meat contributed 95,000 t or 77.9 %.
The share of broiler meat in total poultry meat production reached 83.9 % in 2015, turkey meat contributed 10.5 %, all other poultry meat types shared only 5.6 %. The dominance of broiler meat is reflected in the high per capita consumption of 22.9 kg, 4.5 kg more than the EU average. In the analysed time period, the per capita consumption of poultry meat increased by 3.6 kg or 11.3 %. This resulted in a growth of the domestic demand by 308,000 t or 15.4 %. Imports had to be increased considerably because of the much lower growth of the domestic production by only 152,000 t.
Poultry meat trade is focused on EU member countries
Summary and perspectives
The preceding analysis could show that the UK has been one of the leading countries in poultry production and trade within the EU so far. In egg production, a remarkable development occurred regarding the housing systems for laying hens. Enriched cages and free-range systems have almost the same share in production; barn and organic systems lost in importance between 2010 and 2015. A self-sufficiency rate of only 85 % required considerable imports of shell eggs and egg products. The main trading partners have been EU member countries.
Despite a considerable growth of poultry meat production, the self-sufficiency rate decreased to 73 % in the analysed time period, mainly due to the growth in per capita consumption. Growing imports of fresh and frozen products as well as of processed products were the result. In 2015, they reached a volume of 835,000 t. While fresh and frozen products were mainly imported from EU member countries, Thailand and Brazil were the leading countries of origin for processed products.
Poultry meat exports reached a volume of 335,000 t in 2015. Here, too, EU member countries were the main trade partners. The close dependency of the UK in poultry products trade with EU member countries is obvious. The decision to leave the EU will have considerable impacts on the poultry industry of the UK, whatever the results of the bilateral negotiations will be (see Harris 2016, van Berkum et al. 2016). This will not affect the imports and exports of eggs and poultry meat, but also the trade with feed components, vaccines, breeding stock and hatching eggs. Higher costs for imported products and a decreasing competition regarding exports will be the direct consequences. The coming years will show how the UK poultry industry will react to these challenges.
Data sources and additional literature are available on request.