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The Poultry Network Podcast: Introductions
76 Plays10 days ago
Welcome to The Poultry Network Podcast, hosted by Tom Woolman and Tom Willings — your insider guide to the UK’s poultry meat and egg production industry.
From farm to fork, we bring you expert insights, latest trends, and stories that shape the sector.
Whether you’re a farmer, processor, or simply passionate about poultry, this podcast is your go-to source for all things poultry in the UK.
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Transcript
Intro
Introductions and Backgrounds
00:00:16
Tom Willings
Hello and welcome to our new podcast. This is the Poultry Network podcast. My name is Tom Willings. ah Joining me, Tom Woolman We should probably start with some introductions, Tom.
00:00:28
Tom Willings
want to kick off?
00:00:29
Tom Woolman
ah Yeah, yeah. Thank you for for inviting me on. um Yeah, so I'm um Tom, Tom Woolman, and I've worked predominantly up until this point in the in the poultry meat sector for about 15 years.
00:00:44
Tom Woolman
um Done all sorts of roles from farm manager um to to some senior management positions as well with with integrators. um Done a few other things as well. um Done quite a bit of poultry journalism.
00:00:58
Tom Woolman
but ah for a couple of years.
00:00:59
Tom Willings
Award winning, Tom.
00:01:00
Tom Woolman
ah Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Yeah, the award, I'm just looking at it now.
00:01:02
Tom Willings
what What was the award?
00:01:06
Tom Woolman
It's a special commendation. So i didn't I didn't get the top award, um but it was at the British Guild of Agricultural Journalists, John Deere Training Awards. So um I actually got to um play around with tractors as part of that, which is good because you don't often get to do that when you're a chicken palmer.
00:01:20
Tom Willings
That's win win-win, isn't it? I tell you, that sounds pretty serious to me. Having never won a single award in my entire life, I would take that.
Experience in the Poultry Industry
00:01:25
Tom Willings
And if it comes with driving a tractor at the same time, then ah that is utopia, Nirvana, nothing better.
00:01:30
Tom Woolman
Yeah. Yeah. So that's good. So, yes. And I and i work, um um I work in the poultry meat sector now and um yeah, interesting times. Interesting times.
00:01:40
Tom Willings
Yeah.
00:01:40
Tom Woolman
Yeah. What what about you? What's what's your background?
00:01:43
Tom Willings
So you're the meat guy, I'm the egg guy. Two toms, both follically challenged, but um I'm the one who actually looks like the final product. I'm not saying that you don't look like a chicken, but I do look like an egg.
00:01:55
Tom Willings
um But yeah my background is 15 years or so. in the in the egg industry predominantly with with with packers, so buying eggs from lots of farms as well as owning and running farms themselves. So worked for for two of the largest in the country.
00:02:10
Tom Willings
um And then interspersed amongst that a bit of time in retail, a bit of time in food service, a bit of time in sort of ancillary industries supporting functions. um currently combining ah work for for egg base everyone knows egg base is the carbon footprint and business and the and the and the software platform for for for layers but we do bit meat stuff as well um and then my own my own consultancy but and being the host of the sustainability hub podcast for the poultry network um over the course of the last few months and the poultry network podcast is different to the sustainability hub podcast but
00:02:48
Tom Woolman
So so what what what what were you thought what are you trying to create then with this with this new podcast?
Podcast Aims and Format
00:02:53
Tom Willings
well, what are we trying to create? This is going to be ah an ongoing two-man effort, two-up team. um I think what we want to create is something bite-sized, something regular, um something that feels you know familiar and informal, but at the same time, hopefully insightful and and ah nearing professional experience.
00:03:18
Tom Willings
and I'd have a great ambition just to be part of the fabric of the news cycle of our collective industry. um I'd like to welcome guests onto episodes in the future. Sometimes it will be just you and me, and but sometimes it'll be with um anybody from across the entire industry, meat sector and and egg sector and and and supporting services as well, crucially.
00:03:45
Tom Willings
But But I'd see it all the way up and down the supply chain from farmers and growers, packers and processors, retailers, restaurateurs, academia, governance, assurance scheme,
00:03:58
Tom Willings
um yeah the the whole gannet.
00:04:02
Tom Woolman
So really, we've got but so we' got, yeah, I think it's important that that we could say at this point, there's an open invitation really to anyone that's listening to this and would like to talk to us and would like to get involved or has got stuff they want to discuss, then um yeah then then then then please get in contact with with Poultry Network.
00:04:03
Tom Willings
What about you?
00:04:19
Tom Woolman
you'll find them on all your social channels and they've got a website. um Yeah, and we we definitely look at doing something in the future.
00:04:28
Tom Willings
Absolutely right. and and there's And there's loads going on
Market Dynamics and Challenges
00:04:30
Tom Willings
just at the moment. you know we're we're We're kicking this off at a time where um you know world events obviously change at an alarming pace and we've got some um Yeah, again, policy makers and plenty of content creators, haven't we, in in in in charge of enormous economies and in the largest economies and in the world.
00:04:52
Tom Willings
um yeah yeah The word tariff, I don't think, has ever been used um quite so frequently, but ah it makes the world a pretty interesting place at the moment. All sorts of change, incredibly dynamic marketplace.
00:05:01
Tom Woolman
boom
00:05:04
Tom Woolman
um
00:05:05
Tom Willings
And um yeah I look forward to discussing that as well. as one particular avenue, but um you know there's there's all sorts of stuff going on in each of our respective preferred sides of um of the industry. what's What's going on in the broiler sector at the minute?
00:05:20
Tom Woolman
So certainly for many for for i say for many years, um people were talking about the the the Better Chicken Commitment or the European Chicken Commitment. talking about whether that would whether that would be happening as a widespread um phenomenon.
00:05:34
Tom Woolman
um I think now um really the the industry has has played its cards and the retailers have played their cards. And while they're not moving towards a slower growing breed,
00:05:46
Tom Woolman
the vast majority of retail is signed up to a 30 kilos ah stocking density, which is which is a but reduction, it's about 21% reduction in terms of stocking density.
00:05:58
Tom Woolman
So fewer fewer chickens in in in in the poultry house. What that's done actually though, is has driven a ah shortage of production space, um in the uk um interestingly i mean you'll talk about the eggs but interestingly at a time as well when um you know the egg sector um and and the meat sector ah can be in competition for the same you know for the same resources the same poultry building so um yeah there's a bit of a shortage um and so even though there's a lot of um
00:06:30
Tom Woolman
There's a lot of the conditions that you need for for for for growth. You know, but performance seems to be doing reasonably well at the moment in terms of bird performance. Fee prices are tracking down. um But um potentially we're not we're not growing um to fill that and gap as quickly as we could do because of um challenges around environmental permutation and and planning.
00:06:52
Tom Willings
Planning, yeah there's another great topic.
00:06:53
Tom Woolman
Yeah, yeah.
00:06:55
Tom Willings
We've got to get in we've definitely got to get get into that and get get the right people on to talk about
00:07:00
Tom Woolman
Yeah.
Key Industry Topics and Future Plans
00:07:00
Tom Willings
to talk about that.
00:07:00
Tom Woolman
So and what's and what about the egg sector then at the moment, Tom? What ah what what do you hear people talking about?
00:07:04
Tom Willings
um lot it Firstly, I think you touched on something that's really important is that there's a huge crossover between the two sectors. um So a lot of the things that that that challenge you or a lot of the things that that present opportunity to to the meat industry, it you know it will be the same on on the egg side of the job.
00:07:21
Tom Willings
um Specifically, eggs at the minute, I think probably most of the chats around free range codes of practice, production standards, dare I use the letters RSPCA, you know there's been all sorts of um debate discussion about their changes of of standards since they first um you know but made made noises in in late 2023. There's been discussions with or other negotiations um between between everyone in in the chain.
00:07:51
Tom Willings
um and and and recently come out with a kind of white smoke saying, here here are our revisions, yet don't seem quite to have satisfied everybody at grassroots level.
00:07:58
Tom Woolman
and
00:08:02
Tom Willings
So that's probably the most obvious um ongoing discussion. Lots of M&A, lots of businesses changing hands, quite a lot of European influence in that as well.
00:08:07
Tom Woolman
yeah
00:08:10
Tom Woolman
yeah
00:08:13
Tom Willings
That's interesting. um Yeah, imports. So, um you know, we've got we've just had a degree of deregulation in the in the post Brexit relationship with the European Union that should smooth the um the export market.
00:08:29
Tom Willings
But we've also got a conversation ongoing about just how easy a target we are for for for imports and and how much egg is um is coming in specifically from Ukraine.
00:08:40
Tom Willings
at the moment. So yeah, they're probably the the the the topics of the day.
00:08:42
Tom Woolman
yeah
00:08:45
Tom Willings
um So yeah, looking forward to getting into the detail on each of those with with with guests and and and and with yourself, Tom.
00:08:53
Tom Woolman
Yeah. Yeah. And I think i think i'm what I'm quite excited about is actually having a bit of a space where we can talk and we can give some comment on the news. Because I think particularly in the poultry sector, there's not there's not a huge amount of um of different voices that are always heard.
00:09:09
Tom Woolman
um So it's nice to create a bit of a space where, yeah, we can talk about what's going on um with with the sector and yeah and let some different voices come and talk about it.
00:09:22
Tom Willings
Fantastic. Well, looking forward to getting started. um i'm going I'm going to repeat your call to arms. If you haven't already subscribed to the Poultry Network weekly newsletter, then go ahead and do that. But soon you're going to see a link to the podcast as well. We'd love you to to to subscribe.
00:09:40
Tom Willings
to that um and of course there's all sorts of other stuff going on within poultry network not not to mention the sustainability hub um still goes on that's still a separate product via the poultry network ah website i've got a conference coming up of course in in september and we'll get jake himself on to come and talk about that in in due course but for now and we hope you're going to join us on this journey we don't know quite where it's going to take us but we're going to enjoy the process and um tom i'll see you next time
00:10:10
Tom Woolman
Yeah. See you. Bye-bye.
00:10:11
Tom Willings
Thank you.