Skills gap, not supermarkets, 'biggest threat to butchers'

A lack of fresh recruits is now the greatest threat to the survival of craft butchers, it has been claimed.

BBC Radio 4's Food Programme spoke to independent butchers, farmers and representatives of the meat industry about the challenges facing smaller businesses, and found that many identified a skills gap as the biggest problem.

Jane Dale, managing director of training provider MEAT Ipswich, said that according to her company's research the average age of a butcher is now around 57.

"I think we stopped seeing closures due to the supermarkets three years ago," she told the programme. "The feedback that I'm getting is that trade is good, but where are the staff?"

Asked whether there was enough being spent on training a new generation of butchers, Christopher Lamb of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (Meat Services) said that funding was a worry, but that his organisation's budget was stretched across many aspects of supporting the industry.

"Whether you're a big business or a small business, you need to be doing a full range of activities – everything from staff training and product development at one end right the way through to customer marketing," he said.

"To be fair, I don't think we could ever do enough for everybody," he added.