People Still Willing To Pay For Quality Food

Lowther Park Farms near Penrith in Cumbria has a regular stock of 15,000 organic chickens and is now supplying 1,200 a week to supermarkets and other retail customers. Poultry manager, Roger Gill, says the big rise in sales stems largely from publicity generated by celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who have highlighted the ethical benefits on their own TV programmes.

But Mr Gill says the vastly superior taste and texture is now persuading more people to stick with organic chickens despite the extra cost even at a time when shoppers are having to cope with rising food prices. He explains, “We have gone up from supplying 500 organic chickens a week to 700 and now 1,200. Part of that is down to good management here on what is one of the biggest organic farms in the UK.

“But the TV factor has also played a big part in highlighting the gulf when it comes to texture and taste. The difference this time though is that instead of there being an initial increase and then a drop off after that publicity, the public awareness has continued. And so have our sales as customers respond to the rising demand from shoppers who are discovering that organic chickens taste like chicken used to. They are a lot firmer and not as spongy or tasteless like those two-for-six-quid supermarket offers.”

Lowther Park Farms covers 2,700 acres and has been totally organic since 2002 when its flock of sheep was culled in the foot and mouth outbreak that swept Cumbria.  Its biggest customer for organic chickens is Preston-based supermarket chain Booths, which 27 stores in the North West. Besides its own breeding flock of organic chickens, LPF also sell around 2,000 bronze organic turkeys every Christmas. Mr Gill says organic chickens were top of the pecking order when it came to the conditions under which poultry is kept for meat. Next come free-range chickens and then conventional broilers.

Besides better living conditions, organic chickens are slow-growing breeds, which are slaughtered at 10-13 weeks. This is opposed to five to six weeks for free-range ones, which can be the same breeds as conventional broilers or caged hens - the chicken meat industry’s equivalent of egg-laying battery hens. “Organic chickens are only in flocks of 600 maximum, whereas there can be 6-7,000 in free-range sheds,” Mr Gill explains.

“These also have open doors but only a small percentage can manage to get out. “Our customers know there are no chemicals or sprays involved in their meat and that the standard of the chickens’ welfare is much higher. But they also know that when they try the flavour, they can really taste the difference. That is why our organic chickens are so popular with chefs.”