Page 7 - RCS Brochure 2016-17.indd

ChAllengeS foR ouR SpoRt
the MARket foR gAMe MeAt & Self RegulAtion of ouR induStRy

During our 2015/16 season the Shoot received £19,421 for our shot game. During the 2018/19 season we received
£1,286. These figures illustrate how our market for shot game has collapsed in a very short period of time. The income
is important but not imperative. The fact is if this were to continue and markets cannot be found for our game it puts our
whole industry and sport in jeopardy.

So why has this happened? Driven game shooting as we know it has suffered from its own success. The sport of shotgun
shooting is more popular than ever before, be it rough shooting or driven game.

After 28 years of running driven game Shoots I know it is very difficult to even breakeven. So some established shoots
have increased bags to both meet the demand and cover increased overheads. Unfortunately some larger Shoots have
increased target bags to an unacceptably high level. Seeing this new opportunity for income many estates who have not
fielded let days in the past are now offering driven shooting. The consequence of this is that the increased popularity and
demand for shooting has given the problem of an excess of shot game on the market. You could ask why have Shoots not
addressed this problem One of the most important Codes of Good Shooting Practice is “If we rear and shoot game birds,
we must have a market for the shot game”. Unfortunately this has not been addressed by too many shoots.

On our shoot over the last 12 years we have varied the number of days fielded but the average size of bag over each
season has been 240 birds per day. Each season we have been able to move all our saleable game into the food chain.
Sadly at little income but I am more than happy that our game is finding a home.

What makes this position more ironical is that game meat “ticks all the boxes”. It is wild, full of protein with little or no
fat. When shot it is also free from medication and antibiotics which is possibly the most important factor in any meat
production.
It is not all bad news an many new initiatives have been established to use this surplus of shot game. One such organisation
which our Shoot supports:

the CountRy food tRuSt ChARity: www.thecountryfoodtrust.org
This Trust was established in 2015 by Tim Woodward to produce and distribute, delicious, nutritious and balanced meals
from countryside products. The meals are given free to those people in need and sold to those people who appreciate
country food in order to help more people. Their target is to feed one million people in food poverty. So far they have
produced 300,000 meals.

Since the Trust was established our Shoot has donated part of the funds received from non shooting guests meals on a
shoot day. I know any direct donations you may wish to make would be very well received.

If you google “Uses for game meat or game pies” you will find many companies offering game meat products and
game recipes.

There are an increasing number of initiatives to promote the sale of game meat and I feel possibly the most important
initiative is:
bRitiSh gAMe AlliAnCe bgA: www.britishgamealliance.co.uk
This was established just over a year ago by some far sighted members of our industry with Tom Adams as Managing
Director.
This is a non profit organisation with two very important objectives:
• To promote the sale of game at home and abroad.

• To establish a self regulatory audit system to oversee Game Shoots.

The BGA has been established to promote the value of British Game in the UK and overseas as a National Marketing
Board. It will run a “British Game Assurance Scheme” for participating shoots allowing members to establish “best
practice” whilst accessing new markets and benefiting from the increased value of game. So far the BGA has received
unanimous support and backing from every organisation within our industry as well as the All Party Parliamentary Group
for Shooting.

Part of this initiative is to establish a “Red Tractor” type of Assurance Scheme to ensure the provenance of our game meets
rigorous, ethical and sustainable standards. There will be a significant cost in setting up and promoting this Scheme.

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