Unveiled at its annual conference by chairman Kevin Roberts, the campaign aims to show that beef and lamb produced the ‘Welsh Way’ – the theme of the conference – can be a positive choice for environmentally-conscious consumers.
Roberts said HCC’s board used its financial reserves to underpin the winter and spring awareness-raising drive, incorporating traditional and new media advertising and led by the industry’s farming champions. The investment, which is additional to already-planned promotional spending in the British market, will feature marketing through HCC’s award-winning targeted social media strategy, as well as targeted advertising on digital TV and print media.
“We will defend, and positively commend, our industry’s position on climate change,” he said. “We say that it’s time to combat the constant rat-tat-tat of cheap jibes and false claims on matters that make a great difference to our businesses regarding veganism and environmental issues.
“We have a positive message for consumers who are worried about climate change - lamb and beef produced the ‘Welsh Way’ is part of the solution, not part of the problem. British consumers want to know that their meat is produced responsibly, in non-intensive systems. This is exactly the story that we can tell about Welsh livestock farming.”
Roberts added: “We’ll make consumers more aware of how the ‘Welsh Way’ of rearing livestock is completely different from intensive production systems elsewhere. Our way is non-intensive, our landscape is ideally suited to rearing livestock on natural grass and rainfall, and our farms act as a carbon sink which can help mitigate climate change.”
Global Meat News will be hosting a webinar on sustainability within the meat industry on 3 March 2020. For commercial opportunities associated with this webinar, contact Aline Henderson on aline.henderson@wrbm.com.