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Response by the Cabinet Member: All Local Authority Councils received a Freedom of Information request at the end of October 2025 regarding the sourcing of chicken products in Welsh schools. This followed a publication of an article by the Country Alliance on the subject at the end of January 2026. The following response will refer to the content of the article. All chicken products procured by Powys County Council served in primary and secondary schools, and in our County Hall restaurant, are of United Kingdom and European Union origin. All UK sourced chicken products are produced at Red Tractor approved Farms. No chicken products are sourced from China, Thailand, or elsewhere. Chicken, as either cooked, coated, or whole muscle, is not currently sourced from Welsh farms, although, the council is committed to increasing our procurement of Welsh products and is actively working with our supplier, Castell Howell, on this. All chicken shell eggs are exclusively Welsh. Castell Howell have provided the following statement: “ Castell Howell recognise that public sector supply chains require a considered approach to sourcing, specifications, and provenance. There is increased awareness from consumers and stakeholders on UK, European and Globally sourced products driven by health, welfare, sustainability and food security considerations. Our approach is to ensure that appropriate food options are available to continue to support a broad customer base with differing commercial requirements. We need to ensure that customers have choice, menu and kitchen appropriate specifications and are conscious of cost and supply implications. In the past 5 years the UK hospitality and foodservice sector has faced numerous challenges from post-Covid business recovery to the increase in National Insurance, minimum wage, availability of staff, managing allergens and the threat of increased business rates. Many of these costs have been absorbed by the menu gross margins and resulted in the subsequent pressure on reducing input costs. Castell Howell recognise that public sector catering is not immune to these pressures. Nevertheless, there is responsibility to be proactive and work closer with our UK suppliers to try and mitigate some of the challenges. In partnership with our local authority customers, we’re investing in restructuring our education supply chains, predominately focusing on horticulture (e.g. Welsh Veg in Schools) to develop a sustainable and resilient supply base. However, we recognise that there are other food categories to focus upon, notably sources of protein. All shell eggs purchased via Castell Howell are exclusively Welsh, purchased direct from Ellis Eggs a business owned by Powys farmer Gwesyn Davies. As we are only one step removed from the egg supply chain, traceability to farm is relatively transparent. Chicken, as either cooked, coated or whole muscle, supply is more diverse than shell eggs. There are numerous product specifications and commercial price points that will suit a particular customer, consequently sourcing exclusively from the UK domestic market is not always a viable option. Over the past decade, or so, countries outside the EU have developed specialist food manufacturing sectors that suit their domestic and economic requirements and have sold into the UK and European markets. Various trade agreements and the emergence of the global market has created opportunities, and threats, that are evident in the produce imported to the UK and sold nationally to the foodservice sector. Powys Local Authority purchased circa 83% of all chicken, by weight, from UK Red Tractor approved farms. Castell Howell purchase these from manufacturers and processors and not direct from farms, consequently as we are two steps from the primary producer, we’ll need a detailed traceability test to establish the exact origin of the farms within the UK. Our experience suggests that processors purchase from a wide UK geographical farming base, many of them are fully integrated systems. Although their traceability for farm source per consignment is 100% accurate, the exact UK origin can change depending on various factors. Essentially, they may be from Welsh farms for one product type and from elsewhere in the UK from another product or batch, this is why they are branded with generic UK provenance. We are in the process of contacting our suppliers for further clarification, ideally with Welsh/Powys volumes as a % of total purchases. We’ll update you as soon as we have the information returned from our supplies. Code Description Unit Total Quantity Total Kg % 70182 RTract Ckd Dice Chick Brs 3.5kg 679.5 2378.25 21% 88934 UKFH Brd Chick Brst Steak 80x60g 576 3261.6 29% 94469 CSBC Steam Ckd Chick Strp 2.5kg 2 5 0% 96219 GGourm Chicken Grills RT 50x60g 25 75 1% 11234 GFarm SFried Chick Gouj 1kg 31 31 0% 21892 MVale Brd Chicken Steaks 12x85g 1223 1247 11% 33048 Theo Diced Chick Tikka 2x2.25kg 104 520 5% 57241 GGourm Chick Brst Fill RT 61x57g 1031.75 3584 32% total kg 11101.85 100 “ I hope that the above answers your question, however, please let me know if you require any further information.
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