'This isn't Old MacDonald': campaigners urge Avara to do more to help river Wye
Avara Foods says it has cut chicken poo in the river's catchment by 30 per cent this year alone.
Last updated 20th Jun 2023
Avara Foods has said it has cut the amount of chicken poo in the river Wye catchment area by up to a third – but campaigners are sceptical.
Manure, coming from the 24 million chickens in the area, is spread on fields, and is a major cause of pollution in the Wye and its tributaries, harming wildlife and turning the river into a green “pea soup”.
But Avara’s latest update on its Sustainable Poultry Roadmap says: “Taking into account farm closures and out-of-catchment exports, manure from our supply chain has reduced 30 per cent since the start of 2023.”
“Avara’s roadmap will solve the problem for Avara and its customers, but without a serious debate on the real causes will make no difference to the river,” its update adds.
But Save The Wye Coalition founder Richard Tyler said the company’s update “is just as thin and insubstantial as the original so-called roadmap issued earlier this year”, with “no evidence, no science, nothing that will give us any reassurance that this is more than greenwash”.
He claimed Avara’s reliance on AD was “fantasy”, adding: “They don’t seem to realise that phosphates do not get digested. Just as much comes out as goes in. And they can create their own pollution.”
He said the claimed reduction is “pretty phenomenal”, bit he wants to know how.
“The number of chickens hasn't gone down, as far as we know. Overall, it's still 24 million of them or something in the Wye catchment. It is just incredible concentration of one particular industry in an area with no responsibility for dealing with the pollution that industry is causing.
“This isn't this isn't farming, this isn't Old MacDonald with chickens in the farmyard, this is highly intensive, international commercial interests at stake.”
Mr Tyler managed to address a question to Tesco, which Avara supplies, during the retailer’s annual general meeting on Friday 16th June on what he claimed was its lack of progress in addressing the impact on the Wye of its intensive poultry and egg production supply chains.
“They may appreciate the urgency but Tesco is promising nothing new,” he said afterwards. “The Wye needs the leadership that Tesco could bring to help resolve these complex issues.”
Tesco has said it funds work with its suppliers to tackle water pollution in the area and bring in best farm practice.
Avara Foods, which has a processing factory in Hereford, says it’s aiming to stop any extra phosphates entering the Wye by 2025.