ALMOST TWO-THIRDS of small abattoirs expect to close their doors within the next five years if action isn’t taken imminently to support the sector.

A survey undertaken by National Craft Butchers of small abattoirs UK-wide, which included 12% of respondents from Scotland, has painted a worrying picture of the future of local meat supply.

Of those surveyed, 59% expect to close their business within the next five years and almost one quarter of all respondents warned that they could be closing up within the year.

The survey was organised by Eleanor O’Brien of National Craft Butchers who told The SF that that they had lots of anecdotal evidence of abattoir decline across the UK but had been lacking the hard data until now.

“We asked small abattoir owners that if the current trading climate stays the same how long can they see themselves staying in business and 59% said without action being taken they would close up shop within five years.

“This was sadly confirmation of what we already knew, but there is still a shock when you see the figures,” she said. “There are so many people behind the scenes campaigning on this but it just hasn’t had the traction.”

There are approximately 65 small abattoirs currently operating in the UK.

“We have been getting more enquiries about farmers wanting to diversify into local meat boxes but with small abattoirs closing there isn’t the capacity,” continued Ms O’Brien. “A lot of small abattoirs provide killing facilities but also cutting and packaging services. A lot of farmers aren’t butchers so need someone else to process their carcass and it is a huge investment for someone to build their own cutting room.”

She added that 100% of the respondents to the survey offer private kill, cutting and packaging services.

Megan Perry of the Sustainable Food Trust said that regulation and government red tape was stifling small abattoirs: “The heavy-handed approach taken by inspectors is creating a culture of fear in the abattoir sector,” she said. “This needs to change as it is causing mental health problems and pushing smaller premises to quit.

“Abattoir owners are also facing increased financial costs with new rules coming in yearly, be that a new roof, installing CCTV, painting floors etc, but it has to come out of their own money as there aren’t the grants available. There isn’t a lot of money to be made in smaller premises but overheads are high so they can’t absorb these costs like bigger abattoirs can.”

She added that this week the sector was hit with the news that Defra’s Equipment grant, coming out in the autumn, won’t be available to abattoirs. The Food Standards Agency is trying to address the 'one size fits all' approach to the rule book which is disadvantaging smaller premises but Ms Perry stressed that their five-year timescale will be too late: “Things are moving too slowly, while we are waiting and talking, more and more abattoirs are going out of business. If we want to slow this decline, things need to change this year.”

Ensuring a network of local abattoirs is vital for offering private kills to smaller farms and supporting rare breeds, but Ms Perry warned that we could soon see less local meat: “With all the pressures facing the abattoir sector, farmers are changing their business and stopping things like meat boxes or farm shop sales as they can’t get to a local abattoir. We could soon see a change in the way local food works with less and less local meat on offer,” she concluded.