News

Booming Demand for Game Spells Success for Yorkshire

August 2003

A huge leap in demand for British game is paying dividends for a Yorkshire company, whose client list includes some of the country’s most exclusive restaurants.

Yorkshire Game, which started as a kitchen table venture in 1989, has proved so successful it has just moved into a new purpose-built 20,000sq feet processing plant and offices in Brompton on Swale, North Yorkshire.

The move has been grant-aided under Defra’s Processing and Marketing Grant scheme and will enable the company to meet the demands of new markets. As well as separate lines for venison and for ‘feather’ and ‘fur’ species - necessary to obtain a full export licence – the state of the art facility is designed to cut and pack meat to order.

The plant will employee 20 staff initially with an additional 10 seasonal jobs being created during the game season.

Managing director Sandra Baxter, who founded the company with her husband Louis, has seen a boom in the demand for all types of game products.

She says:

“There is a real demand for high quality, traceable game, both in the UK and abroad. Game is the ultimate free range meat, and because it’s typically leaner and has a lower fat content is regarded as healthier. People trust it because you can only obtain it fresh when it is in season. However we’re also seeing increased demand for frozen game out of season.

“Our busiest time is during the grouse season, when we are inundated with orders from leading restaurants. However that demand is expanding with chefs looking for new recipe ideas which aren’t always tied to a season.”

All the meat comes from shooting estates, syndicates and sports shooters across the north of England and Scotland. The Company supplies customers across the whole meat industry and boasts a client list of top London restaurants and clubs that reads like a Michelin Guide. Yorkshire Game delivers to London twice a week, enabling the company to remain in close contact with the chefs and able to discuss new ideas.

Sandra Baxter adds:

“This expansion opens up a huge market for us. It will enable us to meet the traceability requirements of the larger catering butchers, to potentially move into the ‘added-value’ market of pre-prepared meat which makes game more user-friendly for shoppers and to tackle the export market. The UK is a net producer of game, while the EU is a net importer. It’s a market we can’t ignore”.

As Chair of the National Association of Game Dealers, Sandra Baxter is also involved in a joint project with the Countryside Alliance to promote game to a wider audience. Partly supported by a Defra Rural Enterprise Scheme grant, ‘Game to Eat’ provides advice on buying and cooking game and provides a database of UK suppliers.

Christine Clark, of Defra’s Rural Development Service, has been assisting with the project. She said:

“The aims of the Processing and Marketing Grant include the development of facilities to help producers cope with changing trends in the market and encourage the creation of new outlets for produce. This new facility will ensure that Yorkshire Game is able to expand to meet the demands of the market, both in this country and abroad, and to share that experience with its suppliers. It will also ensure that what is seen by some as a pastime continues to make an important contribution to the rural economy and to the management of the rural landscape.

“Yorkshire Game provides a vital link between the estates and farms and the market.”



Notes for Editors

1. The Processing and Marketing Grant (PMG) is a capital grant scheme under the England Rural Development Programme (ERDP). It is designed to improve the agricultural processing and marketing infrastructure in England. £44 million has been made available for the PMG over the period 2001 to 2006.

2. It is open to individuals, collaborative groups of primary producers, or private and public limited companies. Priority is given to small and medium sized enterprises.

3. The PMG can only support processing and marketing of products covered by Annex 1 to the Treaty of Rome (as amended). Fishery and forestry products are completely excluded from the scheme.

4. Awards will provide 30% of eligible costs of new buildings, refurbishment of old buildings and the purchase of new equipment. There is a minimum total threshold of £70,000 for eligible projects. There is no upper limit for projects but the maximum grant is £1.2 million per project. Applicants must fund at least 45% of total eligible project costs from their own resources.

5. The England Rural Development Programme (ERDP) provides a framework for the operation of 10 separate but integrated schemes which provide new opportunities to protect and improve the countryside, to develop sustainable enterprises and to help rural communities to thrive. The schemes (and a brief outline of their aims) are:

* Countryside Stewardship and Environmentally Sensitive Areas Schemes (protecting landscapes and wildlife habitats, improving biodiversity).
* Organic Farming Scheme (promoting organic production).
* Hill Farm Allowance Scheme (supporting sustainable farming in the English hills).
* Woodland Grant and Farm Woodland Premium Schemes (encouraging planting of new woodland and maintenance of existing woodland).
* Energy Crops Scheme (encouraging renewable energy production).
* Rural Enterprise Scheme (supporting a diversified and enterprising rural economy).
* Vocational Training Scheme (improving occupational skills of farmers).
* Processing and Marketing Grant (improving agricultural processing and marketing infrastructure).

A total of £1.6 billion of EU and Government money is being made available under these schemes in England during the 7 years (2000 to 2006) of the Programme.

6. For more information on any of the schemes in the ERDP, contact your local Defra Rural Development Service office or visit the Defra website at www.defra.gov.uk.

Issued on behalf of Defra by GNN Yorkshire & the Humber. For further information please contact Alison Jarman on 0113 283 6591.