The United Kingdom relies heavily on imported chicken to meet domestic demand. While some chicken is produced within the UK, the vast majority is imported from other countries. Understanding where the UK’s chicken comes from provides insight into the country’s food supply chain and agricultural trade relationships.
The UK’s Chicken Consumption
The UK is one of the largest consumers of chicken in Europe. According to the British Poultry Council, chicken accounts for around half of all meat eaten in the UK. In 2020, the average person in the UK ate around 34 kilograms of chicken.
With a population of over 67 million people, this translates to around 2.3 million tonnes of chicken consumed domestically each year. The numbers have been steadily rising as chicken becomes more popular relative to other meats.
To put the scale of the UK’s chicken consumption into context, if all the chicken eaten in the UK in a year was lined up in 1 kilogram packages, it would stretch around the Earth at the Equator over 5 times.
UK Chicken Production
While the UK produces a sizable amount of its own chicken, it is not enough to meet total demand.
There are around 9,000 broiler chicken farms in the UK, concentrated mostly in Eastern England. In 2020 these farms produced around 1.2 million tonnes of chicken. So around half of the chicken consumed in the UK is home-grown.
The National Farmers Union reports that the UK is 75% self-sufficient in poultry meat when considering domestic production against total supply. So the UK relies heavily on imported chicken to make up the shortfall between domestic production and total consumption.
Sources of Imported Chicken
To supplement its domestic chicken production, the UK imports fresh and frozen chicken from a variety of countries around the world.
European Union
The largest source of the UK’s imported chicken is the European Union. Even after Brexit, EU countries continue supplying over half of all chicken imports to the UK.
The top EU suppliers are:
- Poland: supplies around 30% of UK chicken imports
- Ireland: supplies around 10% of UK chicken imports
- Netherlands: supplies around 8% of UK chicken imports
Other EU nations like France, Belgium, and Germany also export smaller volumes of chicken to the UK.
South America
Countries in South America are the second largest source of imported chicken for the UK. Around 20% of UK chicken imports come from South America.
The main suppliers are:
- Brazil: supplies around 12% of UK chicken imports
- Chile: supplies around 3% of UK chicken imports
Brazil’s large chicken industry allows it to export substantial volumes to Europe and Asia. Chile is also gaining market share as a chicken exporter.
Thailand and Ukraine
Thailand and Ukraine each supply around 7% of the UK’s annual chicken imports. Both countries have lower production costs that allow them to export competitively priced chicken globally.
Why Does the UK Import So Much Chicken?
There are several reasons why the UK needs to rely heavily on imported chicken:
- Cost of production – Chicken can be produced more cheaply in places like Thailand and Brazil due to lower costs of labor, feed, facilities etc. This makes imports cheaper than domestic production.
- Self-sufficiency declines – UK chicken production has failed to keep pace with rising consumption. Domestic production has flatlined over the past 20 years while demand keeps increasing.
- Trade relationships – As an EU member, the UK was part of the common market allowing free trade of goods like chicken from Europe. This established trade links that continue today.
- Consumer preferences – UK consumer habits favor breast meat, while EU suppliers produce more balanced chickens that allow export of legs/wings.
The UK’s import dependency for chicken looks set to continue unless production costs can be reduced or domestic output expanded. Brexit could also reshape the UK’s chicken import patterns in the coming years if trade terms with Europe change.
Food Safety of Imported Chicken
The safety of imported chicken has occasionally sparked concerns. However, the Food Standards Agency maintains import controls and audits to ensure chicken from all sources meets UK food safety standards.
Here are some of the safety controls around imported chicken:
- Strict auditing of processing standards in exporting nations
- Temperature-controlled transport of frozen chicken
- Random testing for contaminants such as salmonella
- Traceability requirements back to the farm of origin
As most imported chicken comes from established trade partners like Poland and Brazil, major food scares related to chicken imports are rare.
Impact of Chicken Imports on UK Farmers
The large influx of imported chicken has a significant impact on domestic chicken producers and farmers. As imported chicken provides price competition, many UK farmers claim it depresses prices and makes it harder to recover their higher production costs.
Some impacts include:
- Lower prices received by UK farmers for their products
- Reduced competitiveness of UK-produced chicken
- Lower investment in domestic chicken production facilities
- Calls for better country-of-origin food labeling
On the other hand, UK consumers benefit from the lower prices enabled by cheap imports.
This represents an important trade-off – lower retail prices for consumers versus a reduction in domestic food production capabilities.
Could the UK Produce More of its Own Chicken?
Expanding UK chicken production would require substantial investment and changes to reduce costs. Areas where domestic capability could be improved include:
- Adoption of new technologies like automation to improve productivity and reduce labor costs
- Improved chicken breeding and genetics better suited to UK conditions
- Investment in larger, more efficient production facilities
- Reduced regulatory burden on UK chicken farms
With sufficient capital investment and policy support, UK farms could potentially supply up to 85% of domestic demand according to industry groups. However it would likely require chicken prices to rise to enable higher UK production costs.
Food Security Implications
The UK’s heavy reliance on imported chicken has some food security implications:
- Vulnerability to export restrictions in supplying nations
- Transport or logistics disruptions could impact chicken imports
- Lack of domestic production capacity limits self-sufficiency
- Food supply chain resilience risks in supply crises eg. pandemics
However, the diversity of import sources across Europe, South America and Asia mitigates some of these risks through avoidance of over-reliance on one particular nation.
Stockpiling larger reserves of frozen chicken could also help build UK resilience against potential disruptions to imports.
Outlook for UK Chicken Imports
Current projections suggest the UK will continue importing over 60% of the chicken it consumes. However, the outlook faces some uncertainties:
- Full impacts of Brexit on EU-UK chicken trade are still unfolding
- Competing trade deals could favor different exporters like Brazil or USA
- Whether UK production can be increased to capture more domestic demand
- Fluctuations in global feed prices affecting relative production costs
- Changing UK consumer preferences between chicken and other proteins
Despite these uncertainties, chicken imports are likely to remain vital for satisfying UK demand. Domestic producers will continue pushing for better protection against cheap imports to improve their competitiveness.
Conclusion
In summary, the UK sources the majority of its chicken from overseas imports. About 60% of the chicken consumed comes from other countries – with Poland, Ireland, Brazil and the Netherlands being the leading sources. This reflects the higher relative costs of domestic UK production and increasing UK consumer demand for chicken.
While important for food affordability, the high import dependency creates some potential food security and agricultural risks. Striking the right balance between imported and domestic chicken will remain both an economic and political challenge for the UK in the years ahead.