New £4m fund to support smaller abattoirs

Grants of £2,000 up to £60,000 will be available for smaller abattoirs to fund capital items and other eligible investments. 

The fund, comprised of £4m in total, supports abattoirs in making improvements to productivity, animal health and welfare, to add value to primary products and to encourage innovation. 

The smaller abattoir sector has an important role in maintaining British food security and ensures a competitive route to market is available to farmers, especially those who supply local butchers and farm shops, for a wide range of meat products. 

They make it easier for farmers to get their products to market, protect animal welfare by maintaining reduced journey times to slaughter, provide a route to market for farmers who rear rare and native breeds, and offer wider social and economic benefits to rural communities.  

The Smaller Abattoir Fund will support the purchase of a diverse range of capital investments. This includes items such as cold storage units which can expand refrigeration capacity for processing, allowing abattoirs to increase production rates and help remove the waiting times experienced by many farmers for getting stock processed. 

Funding is also available to improve facilities for stressed or fatigued animals to recover from loading and transport operations. 

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) will email all eligible smaller abattoirs directly within the coming days, outlining the application process.

Farming minister Mark Spencer said: “England’s abattoirs are critical to livestock farmers who provide their high-quality products to local butchers and farm shops up and down the country. 

“This £4 million fund will not only help smaller abattoir and mobile business owners to innovate, invest and improve standards, but it will give farmers, particularly those who produce native and rare breeds, more stability in getting their products to market.”

John Mettrick, chair of the Abattoir Sector Group welcomed the development: “This demonstrates that the government recognises the importance of small abattoirs to farmers, butchers, and the whole rural supply chain.

“This fund has been developed by Defra, the Food Standards Agency, the Abattoir Sector Group and the meat industry working together, and I would urge abattoir businesses to take advantage of the fund to help develop their businesses for the future.”

The application window for the Smaller Abattoir Fund will remain open for nine months and abattoirs will be able to submit up to three applications up to the maximum funding level of £60,000. 

A diverse list of capital investments has been developed in close consultation with industry stakeholders – recognising the bespoke nature of abattoirs, this list is not definitive and additional investments may be eligible if applicants can evidence that the item demonstrates compliance with at least one of the Fund’s aims.