Local butchers importing meat from China

@LoveHearts69

I would also be shocked at a butcher ordering in meat from China though!

They're not ordering it from China. They'll be getting it from their local wholesale butchers who'll be getting it from larger regional/national wholesale butchers.

If the wholesalers didn't have any UK chicken at the time, they may have had no choice but to buy foreign chicken.

Go veggie or vegan, then it won't matter to you where the meat comes from.

Still easier than trying to grow crops on a mountain side or a steep valley!

@Needspaceforlego that's certainly how I'm used to a local butcher/farmshop operating, but I'm quoting OP's reference to the packaging - perhaps she could clarify.
We are usually very careful with reading labels, though (coeliac family, usually hunting for gluten-free sausages!)

(Can identify with your username 😀)

Try and find a genuine local farm shop if you can instead. We get our meat from one now and it’s worth the extra £! So different in taste, colour and texture to the supermarket offerings these days!

I would also be shocked at a butcher ordering in meat from China though!

Butchers tend not to have meat prepackaged and labelled. It's normal in a meat counter with a price tag per kg.
The opportunity to read the label is quiet minimal in a busy butchers, esp if people a qued at the glass.

YABU - they were clearly labelled; you bought them.

Unless the butcher mis-sold them, he hasn't done anything wrong. He's trying to make a living.
Is there a reason you didn't read the label before buying?

An acquaintance of mine who is fond of holier-than-thou finger-wagging about 'shopping local' once tried to explain to me that she was supporting local farmers because she bought pineapples from a farm shop outside Preston (in January).

There does seem to be a lot of self-delusion about food provenance.

I agree
Vote with your feet and be vocal.
Let them know why you won't be back and tell your family and friends.

What the Dutch do really well is intensive agriculture, esp rearing meat in indoor units.

Dutch fruit and veg is grown intensively in greenhouses heated with their (once very cheap) North Sea gas. Most 'Dutch' pork is actually reared in Poland - lower input costs such as cheaper labour and land. The hogs magically become Dutch simply by virtue of being slaughtered in the Netherlands.

Some butchers/farm shops really capitalise on the automatic assumption its local that's not checked Thus have allsorts of far flung meats

There's a large farm shop in Scotland that has quite the social media following that sells huge quantities of chicken from Poland. Perhaps it's changed, I don't shop there anymore. I got no answer when I asked them about it.

There's also a butcher with a fairly big name (and a bloody enormous house) who started off like a normal butcher shop but the last time I went there everything was prepackaged and when I asked for something that wasn't in the front shop (that shouldn't have been too unusual for a standard butcher to have) I was told I'd need to pre-order it. I haven't been back there either.

Another organic farm shop that charges very high prices for its hopefully high welfare meat - the sausages have so much rusk in them it's like eating the shavings off the shed floors.

I agree. Stop fuming, vote with your purse and seek out local suppliers with ethical practices.

I can't imagine what conditions the animals and the workers endure in China if that imported meat is cheaper.

Always check your labels.

Sorry but this is nonsense. Much of Holland is not good growing land, it's land that is reclaimed from the sea at great expense and land that is increasing difficult to drain and defend from flooding. What the Dutch do really well is intensive agriculture, esp rearing meat in indoor units.

Yuk I’d be really unhappy about Chinese chicken.
That said I do buy chicken breasts that are frozen and come from Poland. I buy it for the quality, I don’t know why but I find Polish Chicken to be superior quality ? Taste/ texture.. less plumped up and watery.

Virtually all of Holland is ideal growing land, i.e. flat, well drained, well watered, etc.

Huge amounts of the UK land isn't suitable for mass cultivation due to hills and mountains, valleys, bogs, etc., not just because it's harder to grow stuff in poor soil, it's also harder to plant and harvest crops on hill sides, etc. It's why we have so much sheep/cow farming as that's more suited to hills and valleys.

I would also have assumed the meat was local, or at least British meat, not chicken from China.
I wouldn't buy from there again and might possibly leave a google review depending on what kind of mood I was in "Disappointed to find that the meat I purchased had been imported from China"

The spuds are because there was a really bad harvest in 2023/2024

I remember about 20 years asking our butcher if all his meet was free range. He looked at me like I was insane 😂and educated me that unless it's labeled local/ free range etc. then it definitely isn't.

That is quite shocking

If they're advertising themselves as an independent, local butcher, then it's pretty misleading I'd say!

I try to buy local sometimes but it is very expensive and often not great. I bought some really expensive cheese from a counter at a local farm shop but I didn't realise it was going to be pre-cut pieces. It was the worst Stilton I've ever had as it had been allowed to sweat in cling film for too long. The piece I got from Tesco, on the other hand, was really good.

Supermarket fresh meat is almost always from the UK.

The USP of an actual butcher is that meat will be from a local source, fresher etc, even if it costs more.

That's shocking. I would have definitely assumed it was British...and not just British, but local.

I once had an experience where I was eating a ready meal and the chicken tasted "weird" and had a strange chewy texture. I spat it straight out when I saw it came from Thailand. Ever since then I've always checked the origin of meat and poultry, both fresh/raw and in ready meals and only ever buy British. It's surprising how many companies and even whole stores it takes out of the equation.

I usually buy my meat and poultry in Sainsburys or the Coop (and check the name of the farm on the boxes) and it's very reasonable. I had some bad experiences with local butchers with meat being very expensive but not that nice when cooked the same...or being on the turn when I collected. There is an artisan butcher in our town where all the meat is local and I buy the Christmas Turkey from and I'd love to support more but I just can't afford the prices they charge. I bought stewing steak from them last year to make a pie for New Year but it was nowhere near as tender or tasty as the casserole steak I buy for £5 from Sainsburys.

There is absolutely no way I would eat meat from China.... rank.

Always assume food, produce or goods are imported and crap standard until informed otherwise.

E.g. pub food pre-prepped from Brakes, craft shops and 'Artisan jewellers' importing tat from China, clothing via forced labour.