UK firm to stop using British pork due to Brexit

[LadyWithLapdog]

www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/24/uk-firm-to-stop-using-british-pork-after-post-brexit-border-problems-helen-browning

It’s not the sunny uplands people were promised.

The argument now is that no one in the UK should be eating sausages full stop or any other meat. So if the meat and fish industries in the UK go to the wall and we can't easily get those products from elsewhere it's a win.

Yes that's a fair point. It's not going to be supported presumably by the people on the thread who like sausages but are nonetheless pleased this UK manufacturer is in trouble, though.

So in the context of the thread it's a bit of a diversion I think.

So she sends the meat to Germany to be made into sausages, and then 85% of them were shipped back and sold here- there has obviously been something in that arrangement that suits the company, I don't know is it cheaper to run a factory in Germany? Now it doesn't, and presumably with us still the biggest consumer by quite a lot, they could do all of the production here if they wanted. Plenty of meat factories about, what is so unique about the one they use in Germany? As is, they have decided to source the meat in the EU and then send it here, most people won't bother I would imagine and buy a similar price point sausage made here.

I do agree brexit is shit for a lot of people, not sure this is the best example.

5 pages about a "UK" sausage maker who would rather use inferior EU pork in order to save a few German workers, than simply stick with British pork and employ British workers.
I'm not happy they're in trouble, but it is trouble of their own making. They made a choice, the wrong one.

@LookAChicken here you go
www.shepherdspurse.co.uk/products/yorkshire-fettle?variant=12193896956027

The company have since clarified that when they do move to EU pork in their sausages it will be to top up the UK supply to meet the increased demand for their organic products
www.pig-world.co.uk/news/a-uk-food-company-has-stopped-using-british-pork-after-post-brexit-complications.html

Too bad. I'll carry right on buying only meat that was born and reared in UK, killed and butchered here in UK, turned into UK sausages here in UK.

And this from the Swindon Advertiser tells the story in a different way to the Guardian. So, it’s not a stopping of using British Pork, it’s a top up and, according to Tim Finney (Brownings partner), hopefully a temporary one at that. This is not quite the story the Guardian has printed. No I didn’t vote for Brexit, Yes I care about British businesses, but No, I don’t want to be lied to and manipulated by the Guardian.

www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/19191468.brexit-batters-sausage-supply-route-swindon-food-firm-helen-brownings/

Or any other pro or anti Brexit publications or broadcasters for that matter.

@Judashascomeintosomemoney I’ve read that link but it doesn’t say anything differently to the Guardian article.

Oh big deal. There are plenty of companies in the Uk that can take over this process, making the product more environmentally friendly.

[quote LadyWithLapdog]@Judashascomeintosomemoney I’ve read that link but it doesn’t say anything differently to the Guardian article.[/quote]
Both links absolutely do say it differently. Sure, the Guardian has an agenda, that’s fine, I know that. But the fact that the company felt the need to ‘clarify’ what was said in the article speaks volumes. They are not dropping their support for British farmers. The Guardian article is biased and unfair to the company. And all because they have an agenda. Posters on this thread have already said, basically, ‘Helen Brownings can eff off then if they’re not supporting British farmers’ etc etc. Completely untrue, unfair and damaging to the British company the Guardian would purport to care so much about.

From the Guardian

A UK food company whose products appear on the shelves of the country’s largest supermarkets has decided to stop using British pork in its sausages because of the post-Brexit complications of moving meat across borders.
After two disastrous attempts since January to send British pork to Germany, where it is made into 75 tonnes of organic sausages annually, the firm behind Helen Browning’s Organic says it has been forced to drop its support for UK farmers and switch to Danish suppliers.

From Pig World

Helen Browning’s clarifies pork sourcing policy after Guardian article
UK food company, Helen Browning’s Organic, whose products appear on the shelves of the largest supermarkets in the countryhas clarified its sourcing policy after a Guardian story suggested it had decided to stop using British pork in their sausages...
The company have since clarified thatwhen they do move to EU pork in their sausages it will be to top up the UK supply to meet the increased demand for their organic products.

From the Swindon Advertiser

.....It said EU pork would be used to top up supply from British farms
But I don’t think we can carry on exporting at this rate, so in the short term we decided to use pork from a Danish farm within the EU which we can transport into Germany and use in manufacturing for a few months

Ok, I see. I didn’t pay attention to the specifics and semantics. There’s plenty of other arguments to be made but they won’t be in the Brexit-flag end of the publications, so where do you get your info?

I’m obviously a remainer, but this is my country too and where my children live. I don’t want to see it going to the dogs and life getting harder.

I didn’t pay attention to the specifics and semantics
But that’s quite important isn’t it? If I’m going to bother getting interested in either side of any particular issue I certainly wouldn’t be getting my information from the likes of either The Guardian or The Daily Mail. Two sides of the same coin. Lying by omission is a common tactic by both of them to make sure an attention grabbing headline gets the responses they’re hoping for. It took two minutes to google the company and find the actual story.

And the reason I bothered googling it is because I know this company well. Their whole ethos is organic, British farmed meat, some of it their from their own farm. I found it, literally, unbelievable that they would now not be using British pork. And as it turns out, I was correct. It is a lie. And now the company have to field a response on their website and Facebook in the face of criticism and slagging off from people, like those in this thread, who didn’t look beyond the headline and believed the blatantly biased Guardian article. It has possibly really damaged their brand. And all because certain sections of the media have an agenda. So, no, it won’t be sunny uplands for Helen Brownings, thanks to the Guardian article. Do you think the apology for misleading the public will be given prominence by the Guardian? No, neither do I. I feel very sorry for them.

Statement from HB website:
Thank you for reading the recent Guardian article regarding EU pork. The article is somewhat misleading, certainly the headline. Please let me put the record straight and explain our position.
Vicky McNicholas

And the link to the full response:
helenbrowningsorganic.co.uk/news/a-message-from-our-managing-director/

Of course, you might think their full explanation simply semantics.

[quote Judashascomeintosomemoney]And this from the Swindon Advertiser tells the story in a different way to the Guardian. So, it’s not a stopping of using British Pork, it’s a top up and, according to Tim Finney (Brownings partner), hopefully a temporary one at that. This is not quite the story the Guardian has printed. No I didn’t vote for Brexit, Yes I care about British businesses, but No, I don’t want to be lied to and manipulated by the Guardian.

www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/19191468.brexit-batters-sausage-supply-route-swindon-food-firm-helen-brownings/[/quote]
That report has been taken from the BBC Farming Today interview with Finney a few days ago.

He certainly wasn’t a happy bunny regarding the time and costs involved in shipping to/from the EU post Brexit.

@Judashascomeintosomemoney eh? How could I google for something that hadn’t happened yet? As you say, you know the company so wanted to dig deeper. I don’t but I did read the whole article, not just the headline. Where else was it reported for a different angle? I don’t read the DM and the others are behind a paywall and a bit right wing and I don’t need that on a daily basis. What do you suggest?

The devil really is in the detail when it comes to how the farming & shellfish sectors are experiencing difficulties during Brexit.
But overall this thread has shown a great amount of support for British food which is a great thing.

@dontsaveusername

Oh big deal. There are plenty of companies in the Uk that can take over this process, making the product more environmentally friendly.

Actually, in the BBC interview Finney said that in 20 years of making sausages they hadn’t managed to find a UK manufacturer that could make their sausages without preservatives.

I agree it’s good to support British food for environmental and economic reasons rather than small-mindedness (see some of the unsavoury comments).

Fair enough, you started the thread late on 24th, the clarification from HB didn’t appear til 25th. But the thread is still running today and PPs are still saying they won’t be buying their products if they’re not supporting British Farners, which isn’t true, because they’re wholesale believing the linked article. I’m not criticising you (though your semantics comment sounded snippy, apologies if it wasn’t meant that way) but I am criticising the style of biased reporting, from both sides, of anything to do with Brexit. Which has now caused damage to this British company.

@NiceGerbil

They sell 300k packs a year and it's a quarter of their sales.

It's a British company that has successfully traded here for years.

The response 'they look crap' is not really very helpful!

Do you not care that this successful UK business has felt the best option is to source pork elsewhere to reduce red tape?

I don't get it.

You seem to essentially be saying well they can fuck off then and their produce looks shit...!!

Because the best option wasn't to source Factory in the UK to make the sausage. Other companies use UK factories so they must be of adequate standards. More likely Germans came in cheaper

@Judashascomeintosomemoney now you’ve linked the other one and people can buy British and everything.

More likely Germans came in cheaper

From the link I posted above, that the company have now had to publish thanks to the Guardian’s misleading article.....

Why we make our Sausages in Germany
We currently make our Speedy Sausages and Hot Dogs in Germany, and always have done. This is due to a lack of suitable facilities in the UK that are certified as organic and are large enough to manage our volumes. As we do not put preservatives into our sausages, like a standard UK sausage recipe would, we have to pasteurise the product in order to get a long enough shelf life to enable us to get it to market and into peoples homes. The process for this is not common place in the UK as this style of sausage is not common in the UK. So we use a small artisan factory in Germany who specialise in this process. Whilst the food miles this generates is not ideal the overall carbon footprint for using organic product, with reduced waste due to the longer shelf life is certainly a lot lower than using conventional pork processed in the UK.

.....It said EU pork would be used to top up supply from British farms
But I don’t think we can carry on exporting at this rate, so in the short term we decided to use pork from a Danish farm within the EU which we can transport into Germany and use in manufacturing for a few months

I suspect that the company has had to backtrack on what it originally said.

During the BBC interview Finney said that they didn’t have the time or the money to deal with the additional costs - they had only made 2 shipments this year and both had taken 8 to 10 days to sort paperwork and costs had tripled.