Greater collaboration, product development and branding would help the South West beef and lamb industry achieve a more profitable and sustainable future.

This was the overall message from the South West red meat conference, Cultivating the Future of the Red Meat Industry, which attracted over 200 producers and processors. The one day conference, supported by South West Regional Development Agency and organised by Meat South West, NFU and Taste of the West, drew a capacity audience at Padbrook Park, Cullompton.

The event was one of the best attended red meat conferences in the UK this year showing the level of concern among producers in the future of the industry and the desire to have open debate with major stakeholders.

A formidable line up of speakers, panellists and delegates vigorously debated the problems and opportunities facing the South West beef and lamb sectors which enabled key participants Sean McCurley, Tesco category director, and Nafees Meah, Defra head of livestock strategy, gain a better understanding of the issues and possible solutions.

The key message from the conference was that much more collaboration was needed throughout the industry. There was growing recognition of the benefits of working together to find solutions to the issues facing the beef and lamb sectors through supply chain partnerships and market development.

Another common theme was the potential to add value to primary meat products and for increased product differentiation. In the future, product development and branding will play an increasingly important role in the marketplace for the region's red meat industry.

There was general agreement that a changing market place will rapidly increase the need for more efficient and market lead production systems.

Julie Harvey, Manager Meat South West said: "Profitability must be increased to ensure a sustainable future for our industry," and Anthony Gibson, regional firector NFU South West, felt that producers had to share in the rewards and the risk, with the entire food chain working together with open transparency, integrating and collaborating. He said: "Everyone in the chain - farmers, processors and retailers alike - must get a fair return for a good product. If all they can see is other players in the food chain taking advantage of them by making money at their expense, they will leave."