Episode Details

Tom Willings and Tom Woolman return to The Poultry Network Podcast with an update on the new-look newsletter (and a reminder to add it to your safe sender list so it drops every Friday around 9:30am). 

Then they’re joined by Rachel Evans, Director for Wales at the Countryside Alliance, to unpack the Alliance’s punchy research into where chicken served in Welsh school meals is sourced from.

Ms Evans says the findings are “atrocious”: some councils reported the vast majority of school chicken coming from outside the UK/EU, including Merthyr Tydfil (99.35% from Thailand and China), Conwy (94% outside the UK/EU), Gwynedd (87.62% from Brazil, Thailand and China) and Caerphilly (87.32%). 

Anglesey said 100% of its chicken is British, and Anglesey and Bridgend said none comes from outside the EU. 

Crucially, Ms Evans says not one of Wales’s 22 local authorities could state what percentage of their chicken was sourced from Wales.

The conversation ranges from tight school budgets and affordability to assurance schemes (many citing Red Tractor), the per-meal value rising to £3.40 after an £8m funding increase, and the climate-policy contradiction of importing food “from the other side of the world”. 

Ms Evans calls for an urgent review of Welsh Government procurement frameworks and an annual, public sourcing report so parents can see exactly what’s on children’s plates. 

The full report and dataset are available on the Countryside Alliance website.