O'Kane denies move is response to Tesco Avonmore to buy from just four Tesco pork supplier Avonmore Meats (UK) has long seemed the sleeping giant of the British pigmeat market, but has been quietly flexing its muscles for several months. On Monday md Martin O'Kane disclosed details of a major shakeup in the company's pig sourcing arrangements and a new price negotiating procedure. From February 15 Midlands based Avonmore will buy from just four pig marketing groups: BOCM Pauls, Dalgety Livestock Marketing, Meadow Valley, and Porcofram. Regular meetings between these suppliers, Avonmore and Tesco should bring stability and predictability impossible to achieve with the previous practice of trying to juggle 11 groups along with some individual farmers supplying direct and occasional purchases on the spot market, according to O'Kane. The overhaul looks like a response to Tesco influence, but O'Kane denies this. "It was my idea a long time ago," he told The Grocer. "I was trying to get some people with vision around a table, to ensure lessons were learned from the crisis we were in a few months ago." Avonmore's statement announcing the move claims it "breaks new ground in the UK pig market supply chain" and the company uses the familiar language of partnership and cooperation in promising "working together in this way the industry will benefit from a greater understanding of the supply chain from the producer to the consumer". In comments to The Grocer O'Kane indicated the industry had been hurt financially by poor communication, especially last year. Tighter links between Avonmore and a smaller number of producer group suppliers should, for instance, "prevent over-production in those groups without our being aware of it". The new system imposes on the four suppliers greater responsibility for livestock quality, including animal welfare and traceability, but pricing arrangements will be flexible ­ not involving a rigid link to the AAPP or Euro Spec average. {{MEAT }}

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