A NUFFIELD scholar has returned from an international study tour with a stark picture for the UK livestock industry.

According to Mr Sean Beer, UK farmers would today face market prices of 43p/kg liveweight for lamb and 70p/kg liveweight for beef if all trade tariffs and quotas were removed.

He recently returned from studying the international supply chain for beef and lamb after visiting Uruguay, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland.

Mr Beer, a senior lecturer in agriculture at Bournemouth university, said the supply chain was global, complex and largely retailer dominated.

"Understanding the dynamics is not easy," he said. "For example, it is possible for an Australian beef animal, and its subsequent products, to pass through 15 hands before reaching the UK consumer."

He examined the standards of production and processing as well as traceability.

While some on-farm practices he saw would not be allowed in the UK for animal welfare reasons, he felt British farmers would be unwise to use that as reasons for restricting imports.

"Most southern hemisphere cattle do not spend half the year indoors," said Mr Beer. "Pursuing the ethical high ground in trade negotiations could be more complicated than it first looks."

Food safety standards on-farm and in abattoirs and processing plants were comparable, or better, than those found in the UK. These included innovative ideas such as smart labelling which changed colour if bacterial contamination occurred, and the use of DNA technology to trace individual pieces of meat back to the original animal.

Mr Beer believes UK producers have to look at the future in a cold and rational way. "They must address the decline in market prices through cost cutting, by producing a premium product or gaining off-farm income," he said.

"They must re-focus their attention on the end user. They need to look at a beef animal and think of it as 520 meals which can be prepared in less than 20 minutes.