2020 to Present Day

2020 to present

• 2021 Raymond Twiddle OBE, one of the pioneers of the modern-day turkey industry dies after a three-year battle with Leukaemia.
• 2021 (March) EPIC Conference postponed for 2nd year running due to concerns re Coronavirus social distancing restrictions.
• 2021 Hubbard marks its 100th anniversary as a broiler breeding company. The firm was founded in 1921 by Ira Hubbard in New Hampshire, USA. In 2018, Hubbard became part of the Aviagen Group, with substantial additional investments in the Hubbard Premium and Conventional R&D programs in France and the USA, as well as in production facilities in France, USA, Brazil, and Poland.
• 2021 Egg industry hit with increased costs and logistical problems due to new rules for exporters following Britain leaving the EU. Some products, such as liquid egg melange, which are usually exported to the EU for use in processing or manufacture, were particularly badly hit.
• 2021 (Jan) 11 cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N8 in poultry confirmed at premises in England:
  • Frodsham, Cheshire (broiler breeder chickens) Leominster,
  • Herefordshire (broiler breeder chickens)
  • Melton Mowbray,
  • Leicestershire (poultry and captive birds)
  • Northallerton, North Yorkshire ( 2 Cases) (rearing turkeys) 
  • Attleborough, Norfolk (rearing turkeys) 
  • King’s Lynn and West Norfolk, Norfolk (rearing turkeys) 
  • South Derbyshire, Derbyshire (captive birds and poultry) 
  • Gillingham, North Dorset, (backyard poultry) 
  • Attleborough, Norfolk (breeding ducks) 
  • Ickburgh, Norfolk (rearing ducks) 
  • West Devon, (backyard poultry)
• 2021 Chris Harrison, who spent his career as a leader in the poultry industry, died on 16 January after contracting COVID-19.
• 2020 (Dec) Leigh Webb, of Webb’s Country Foods, died on Christmas Eve. Following National Service Leigh was persuaded to join his father Percy and uncle Charles at the small family poultry business in Winnal, Winchester. The business grew and Leigh developed a means of cooking old hens, stripping the meat and selling it on to baby food manufactures such as Heinz. As the business expanded an old disused Creamery in Okeford Fitzpaine, Dorset was acquired and converted into a purpose-built poultry processing plant. Continued expansion of the business included the acquisition of factories at Lymington, Corby and Sutton Benger as well as the development of the factory at Chichester.  Webbs Country Foods had many of its own farms, integration of the business continued with the development of the Westbury feed mill and the building of Webb’s own hatchery at Ower, near Romsey.
• 2020 UKEPRA launches a new website focussing on the Laid in Britain Assurance Scheme for smaller producers.  The scheme is registered with The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health and is fully recognised by DEFRA regarding Salmonella exclusion.
• 2020 (Apr) Avara Foods has proposed the closure of its duck business, currently operating out of Caistor in Lincolnshire. Cherry Valley Foods was purchased, in 2015 and gave Avara a unique position in the market as the only producer of British chicken, turkey and duck.
• 2020 (May) Barn egg production increased significantly in the past two years, according to data published by Defra. 197,000 cases of barn egg were packed in Q1 of 2020, compared to 136,000 in the same period of 2019. The total number of barn egg cases packed in 2019 was 601,000, up from 346,000 in 2017. At the same time, colony egg production has declined. The data shows 3,326,000 cases of colony egg were packed in the first quarter of 2020, compared to 3,404,000 in the first quarter of 2019. Free-range is the most dominant production system in UK packing stations, with 4,032,000 cases packed in Q1 2020.
• 2020 (Jun) The British Egg Industry Council announced that Andrew Joret has been re-elected as Chairman of the BEIC, with the following office holders also re-elected: Elwyn Griffiths, BEIC Deputy Chairman; Duncan Priestner and James Baxter, joint BEIC Vice-Chairmen; Jeffrey Vergerson, BEIC Treasurer; with Mark Williams continuing his role as BEIC CEO and Secretary.
• 2020 (Jun) Egg sales grow by 30% as BEIC plans for a post-Brexit world
• 2020 Crown Chicken adopts the NestBorn on-farm hatching system across its entire farming estate. The Belgian-Dutch concept sees pre-incubated eggs transferred from setter trays to litter in poultry houses. The company says this results in “robust chicks, born in natural and stress-free conditions” with access to feed, water and light.
• 2020 David Watts former MD of Thames Valley Eggs dies.
• 2020 Poultry Person of the year: No Award, conference cancelled due to coronavirus pandemic
• 2020 Young Poultry Person of the year: No Award, conference cancelled due to coronavirus pandemic
• 2020 An Avian Influenza Prevention Zone (AIPZ) declared across the whole of England effective from 5pm on 11 November 2020 with additional housing measures in force from 14 December 2020. The AIPZ means all bird keepers in England (whether they have pet birds, commercial flocks or just a few birds in a backyard flock) are required by law to take a range of biosecurity precautions including from the 14 December 2020 keeping their birds indoors except in very specific circumstances.
• 2020 Highly Pathogenic Avian influenza H5N1 confirmed in a backyard flock of chickens near Hawes, Richmondshire, North Yorkshire on 18 December 2020.
• 2020 Britain ends long Brexit journey, and fully leaves the EU, the transition period ended on 31 December. On 24 December, the two parties agreed a trade deal – the EU UK Trade & Co-operation Agreement .
• 2020 (Dec) Avian influenza confirmed in UK, Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Croatia and Ukraine.