PROTECTING OUR POULTRY

Gabriel Shalvey of Shalvey Poultry

Emerging enterprise Shalvey Poultry believes the Government is doing all in its power to prevent Bird Flu from reaching Irish shores. Linda Pearson reports.

Bird flu is still a hot topic on everyone’s lips today, years after it arrived in Europe and shocked the continent. There seems little sign of the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu dissipating with the slaughter of poultry continuing. As of February 2007, 271 people have caught the infection, as a result of close and direct contact with infected birds. One hundred and sixty-five of these have subsequently died.

Poultry Business

Shalvey Poultry is a medium sized enterprise located in Cootehill, Co. Cavan, specialising in a range of cooked, ready to eat turkey and chicken products for delicatessen markets in Ireland, U.K. and mainland Europe. The company has been owned and run by the Shalvey family since 1949 and son of the founders Gabriel Shalvey has been manager since 1995.

Since the business has changed hands, it has increased turnover to approximately €10 million and is one of the manufacturing award finalists in the Small Firms Association 2007 Small Business Awards.

Highlighting Hygiene

Shalvey has extensive experience dealing with poultry and is constantly monitoring hygiene levels in his business. Processing in Shalvey Poultry is centered round strict hygiene controls and a patented method of cooking. The quality department constantly monitors hygiene levels and product quality throughout the factory guaranteeing optimum product standards for customers. This is part of the reason why Shalvey is not worried about bird flu affecting his business.

“I’m not worried at all for my stock at the moment because we take the proper measures and precautions. I’m a realistic thinker and I know I don’t have a lot of control over the migratory patterns of birds. We’re now in springtime and my view is that if it hasn’t come so far this year, it probably won’t come,” says the entrepreneur.

As part of expanding their product range, Shalvey Poultry now manufactures food outside the poultry field which, if the bird flu does strike our shores, will not be affected as much. “We have focused on creating other products that don’t necessarily focus on poultry. We’re doing some beef products and ready-made dinners. The consumer is still going to have to eat food and this is the strength we’re banking on,” explains Shalvey.

Confidence In Government

The Irish Farmers Association’s poultry board recently said the risk of disease spreading here is minimal and there is no need for extra emergency measures on Irish farms. Shalvey reiterates this view believing that the government is doing all it can in terms of emergency measures and preventing the deadly strain from reaching Irish poultry. He also believes that Irish poultry producers maintain sufficient high quality standards when manufacturing, adding to the unlikely event of bird flu taking effect here.

“I’m confident that the Irish government is doing all they can within their powers and can do no more to prevent bird flu spreading here. The practices of people in the Irish poultry growing and rearing industry are of a very high standard and I don’t see a massive spread of bird flu coming over here with the current systems that are in place,” says Shalvey.

He continues by giving other reasons why an outbreak of the disease shouldn’t happen in Ireland. “If good house-keeping is kept within each poultry producer it shouldn’t spread to Ireland. I believe that a vaccination programme to vaccinate all the poultry is the best approach.”

Competing Internationally

Shalvey is more anxious about the globalisation of food and the ability of certain food industries in Ireland to compete in the future than he is about the threat of bird flu. He believes there’s going to be interesting times ahead in the Irish food industry.

With world trade agreements being implemented, Shalvey thinks the competitiveness of the Irish food manufacturing industry is seriously in doubt. In ten or fifteen year’s time, Shalvey says some Irish food products won’t be in a competitive position to have a viable manufacturing entity in this country.

“Ireland can’t compete internationally as imports into Irish markets are obviously having a detrimental effect on competitiveness of Irish manufacturing companies. Even though there’s a will to buy Irish products, there is also a lot of non-national people living in Ireland and they really don’t care if it’s Irish, American or Lithuanian. I believe there’s an evitability factor that certain companies aren’t going to be profitable and they’re going to close, and that’s a fact,” declares Shalvey.

“For example with beef production there’s huge competition from the Brazilian market. There are farms in Brazil bigger than provinces in Ireland so it’s hard to compete with that. That’s why t’s important to keep innovating your products using the strengths available to you while also identifying your threats and weaknesses,” concludes Shalvey.