McDonalds raising meat payments in UK to help farmers

An article on Times Online reports that McDonalds is raising payments for beef and pork in the UK to help farmers hit by outbreaks of disease and increased feed prices. Good for them. Now, why can't corporations start paying coffee and chocolate farmers in the Global South more?


BURGER giant McDonald’s is to increase the amount it pays for beef and pork to help beleaguered British farmers.

The UK arm of the fast-food restaurant chain is to voluntarily raise the price it pays for meat by 5% above the market rate, in what it hopes is a show of support for livestock farmers. They have been hit by outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease and blue tongue, while the summer floods forced up the price of animal feed.

The burger-bar chain is also planning other moves to help ease the problems faced by Britain’s farmers.

All of the beef McDonald’s uses comes from the UK and Ire-land. But it will cut the amount it imports from the Republic from over 50% of its total supply and increase its use of beef from England, Scotland and Wales to around two-thirds. All of the pork that it buys comes from England and Wales.

McDonald’s has a policy of buying beef that has been moved round no more than three times, but it will lift this threshold to four until the current crisis abates.

Matthew Howe, McDonald’s senior vice-president responsible for the company’s supply chain, insisted the price rises were entirely voluntary and not a result of shortages.

“This is not being forced on us. We will pay above market rates. If the price went up, we would still be paying above the market,” he said.

“The livestock farmers are having a particularly tough time. Currently, they are not getting any profit from their animals. We want to see a sustainable industry in the UK.”

McDonald’s spends about £50m annually on beef and some £9m on pork. The price increases are expected to cost the company almost £2m on an annualised basis.

The policy is similar to a recent move by Tesco, the country’s largest supermarket chain, which announced it would raise the amount it pays for milk to Britain’s underpressure dairy farmers. Other supermarkets have followed suit.

Howe said McDonald’s had no current plans to pass the price rise on to its customers.

However, food-price inflation has become a big problem for restaurants, manufacturers and retailers alike, with costs for many goods going up. The price of wheat, for example, has doubled over the past year.