Last month, the International Meat Trade Association (IMTA) celebrated 130 years of history at The House of Commons, where food resilience and security were raised as key messages.
The association began as The Imported Frozen Meat Association after the first imports of frozen meat were sent from Australasia and South America.
In her speech IMTA Chairman Margaret Boanas noted that “a great deal has changed in the last century”.
“We started out in 1895 as the Frozen Meat Trade Association, in 1928 we became known as the imported Meat Trade Association, following our entry into the European Economic Community we became known as the International Meat Trade Association in 1982, to reflect our role in both imports and exports,” she told attendees.
“In the 1880s, the UK was importing mutton, beef and lamb from Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and USA, which arrived at London ports for selling on Smithfield Meat Market. This is where we were established and have remained, only leaving the poultry market in 2022 to make way for the London Museum.”
While IMTA’s residence in Smithfield has remained unchanged, the world of meat in the 21st century looks very different.
As Boanas speech outlined: “The meat imported in the 1880s was frozen and predominantly bone in carcases. Today, the trade is predominantly in individual chilled muscles, reflecting consumers demand and that we no longer eat nose to tail.”
Meat manufacturers need options
The products on offer and manufactured in the UK have expanded substantively over this time. To meet that breadth of choice for UK consumers, those manufacturing require a range of supply sources, including domestic production and imports from nearby in the EU as well as further afield.
Imports play a fundamental role in complementing domestic production by providing the volume, specification and continuity manufacturers need to grow and produce a wider range of SKUs.
In the UK, retailers have the buying power to enable them to wholly offer British meat but manufacturers need to have options when it comes to supply – both domestic and imported – to enable them to employ more staff and grow their business by offering a wider range of products that the UK consumer requires. More volume inputs to manufacture also support employment throughout the food supply chain: boning, cutting, retail packaging, further processing, cold storage.
As outlined in IMTA’s ‘crucial role of imports’ paper published last year, we outlined how the 2025 foot and mouth disease outbreaks in parts of the EU shone a light on the need for alternative import options where animal disease knocks out a supply base overnight. Unfortunately, animal diseases including avian influenza, African swine fever, and foot and mouth disease continue to circulate in different parts of the world and these continue to have an impact on access to meat supplies. However, they make it ever more crucial that we have a range of imported supply options to complement the volumes of key cuts produced domestically.
Export demand for cuts of meat that are less popular with UK consumers but prized elsewhere help businesses achieve carcass balance, reduce waste and sustainably utilise the value of the whole animal. For example, chicken feet are not a popular cut for UK consumers who have more of a preference for chicken breast, whereas in the Far East chicken feet are a delicacy and so receive a better price in those markets.
Exports enable the trade of cuts less popular in the UK market to reach consumers around the world who have different preferences for different cuts, supporting better returns to UK producers and sustainable carcass utilisation.
A nuanced debate
In her speech at the 130th birthday event, our host, Sarah Dyke MP, argued that food security is national security – a message that closely reflects IMTA’s view that resilient domestic production and diverse international supply must work together.
As the recent NAO report outlined, we are going to increasingly see more shocks, including extreme weather, cyberattacks, global conflicts, disease outbreaks. Now more than ever, the UK needs a resilient, diverse and commercially viable food supply.
Previous iterations of IMTA have dealt with animal diseases such as BSE or the world wars but today shocks to food supply systems are coming from more angles than there have ever been before. Therefore, the role of the IMTA in facilitating and championing two-way trade is arguably more important than at any time in its history.
In some parts of the world this is creating a tendency to look inward and argue for self-sufficiency but that puts all your eggs in one basket. We can’t afford to do that in a world with threats from multiple angles. Absolutely we need to support strong domestic production, but we do always need export markets and import supplies to complement that.
Rather than perpetuating unsubstantiated claims about the quality of imported meat, we urge a continued focus on policies that support robust domestic production while acknowledging the vital role of imports in safeguarding UK food security.
As IMTA enters its next chapter, we will continue working with government, regulators, and our international partners to keep trade moving, supporting carcass balance and strengthening UK food security for the years ahead.
About the author
After joining IMTA in 2012, Katie Doherty became CEO in April 2019. She is responsible for leading the association and setting policy direction.
She leads on policy areas including customs, veterinary import controls, Tariff Rate Quotas and also leads on UECBV engagement.
