Red Tractor Week kicks off with poultry focus

11-09-2017 | Uk | News

Consumers are being urged to support quality British food as part of this year’s Red Tractor Week marketing campaign, which rolls out on Monday (11 Sept).

Each day will focus on a different sector, with former NFU president Peter Kendall and Gressingham Ducks promoting the poultry sector on the first day of the campaign.

In a video for the campaign, Mr Kendall, who farms in Bedfordshire, says it is important to open up farms for independent inspection

“We want consumers to know the amount of effort, investment, attention to detail, and stockmanship that goes into producing British Red Tractor chicken.

“It’s really important for us that we have a set of standards that are independently inspected, demonstrate the welfare of our chicken, the environmental protection that we provide and that also demonstrate that we are training our staff that these birds are looked after to the best possible standards.

Ian Rix, a Suffolk duck farmer producing for Gressingham Ducks, added that red tractor assessors wanted to see high welfare standards, including good ventilation, good straw, regular daily checks, availability of open water and attention to food to ensure the ducks were comfortable.

Andy Thompson, Red Tractor Assurance marketing manager, said one of the key aims this year was to drive home the four pillars of the scheme – safety, animal welfare, environmental protection and traceability to consumers.

Mr Thompson told Poultry World that one third of consumers still did not recognise the Red Tractor logo and of the two thirds that did, half didn’t change their buying habits.

“We want to let people know about the good quality food linked to the Red Tractor logo and get consumers to be more passionate about it.”

In an effort to engage with customers, the assurance scheme is creating an online recipe book including people’s favourite meals using Red Tractor products.