Blog: Our ambition to provide more targeted support for red meat exporters

We have a long-established programme of exports work, including coordinating inward and outward trade missions and participating in major trade shows on all continents. Working with the industry and the Government, AHDB has played a key role in helping to secure market access to multiple markets and will continue to do so. Our shared aim is to help our levy payers maximise global opportunities for British red meat and dairy.

While this work remains critical, the global trading environment is ever changing. It is imperative that our exporters have access to key information to help guide their business decisions and maximise opportunities in the global market. With this very much in mind, we have launched an ambitious plan to provide more targeted export knowledge and support for red meat businesses.

We are in the early stages of developing our export knowledge hub, and we are interested in hearing views from the industry on where they have gaps in knowledge and what training they might benefit from. This will inform how we develop the hub and make sure we focus on tailoring content specifically to exporters’ needs.

To do this, we’ve created a survey for the industry, seeking views from red meat businesses. We will use the feedback to develop a knowledge hub that provides essential information to support businesses interested in shipping products to markets around the world.

And what a market it is, highlighted by newly published figures from HMRC that have showed that UK red meat exports were worth £1.7 billion in 2023 – a similar level in value to the record year of 2022.

Against the backdrop of a challenging global trading environment, the full-year red meat export value figures, underpinned by the performance of sheep meat, are encouraging. Now is the time to build on that platform, and delivering resources and insight for levy payers is a key part of the equation in helping and encouraging more businesses to explore export possibilities.

Our levy payers have told us that AHDB’s export development work is highly valued and something that they want to see more of. We are listening to what the industry wants, and I would urge anyone involved in exporting – or thinking about exporting – to complete our survey by midnight on Friday 5 April (was originally Wednesday 20 March 2024).