Gen - Foot and Mouth: British lamb and pork stocks 'set to run out'

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British lamb and pork stocks 'set to run out' By Mary Stevens and Jenny Booth

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SUPPLIES of British lamb and pork will have run out across the country by tonight and beef stocks will be exhausted by the middle of this week, food industry experts predicted yesterday.

Jon Bullock, a spokesman for the Meat and Livestock Commission, said: "We believe lamb and pork are now running out and we doubt that they will last beyond the weekend." Beef stocks were expected to last two or three days longer because more is kept in storage during the maturing process, he added. A spokesman for the National Farmers' Union said: "Our impression is that pork is close to running out, if it hasn't already. Beef and lamb will last only a few more days unless abattoirs can be opened."

A spokesman for the Cold Storage Distribution Federation said: "The majority of supplies are being held in cold and chill stores across the country. All this meat is infection-free." Retailers were increasing imports of meat supplies from abroad and would continue to do so until restricted abattoirs were re-opened for uninfected livestock to be slaughtered.

Tesco's reported that meat and chicken sales were at record levels. In the past seven days Tesco stores have sold 350 tons of topside of beef, compared with 250 tons in Christmas week. Fearing shortages, shoppers on Friday bought 65 per cent more lamb, 45 per cent more beef, 41 per cent more bacon and 35 per cent more pork and chicken than the previous Friday.

A spokesman said that Tesco had put in place a "high-level crisis team" at the start of the foot and mouth outbreak, to ensure that there there were no interruptions to supply. "Of course gaps appear on the shelves, but each day we have been able to deliver bigger loads of fresh meat, dairy products and other groceries. We are not sourcing meat supplies from abroad yet, despite the big increase in sales."

Demand for fresh meat in Somerfield's 600 stores was up by 54 per cent, but a spokesman said that there was no evidence of panic buying, which would have cleared shelves. "We have secured plenty of fresh beef and some pork from Ireland, and we have New Zealand sources for lamb." Somerfield's meat buyers warned that the suspected foot and mouth outbreak reported in Belgium on Friday could affect supplies of bacon and ham, and reduce the sources of pork from mainland Europe.

Sainsbury will have run out of British lamb by the end of the weekend and British pork would also have run out by the beginning of next week, although British beef was still in good supply, according to a spokesman. He added that meat sales were significantly up.

Asda, which yesterday announced shortages of pork and lamb, had imported cuts of beef from the Republic of Ireland to meet future demand. The chain also planned to start receiving consignments of lamb this week and pork from Holland over the weekend.

High-street butchers across the country were also deluged with customers wanting to stockpile meat. Frank Nash, the owner of City Meats store in Birmingham, said: "The public is going crazy. This week has been like Christmas week; the customers are panic buying. We have doubled our take every day this week."

John Grant, of Alford Butchers in Southampton, said sales at his shop had doubled. He added: "Customers are coming in and buying £60 worth of meat at a time. It's been panic buying all week and is just like the petrol crisis."

-- Anonymous, March 04, 2001


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