In the same week that the seventh Business Benchmark for Animal Welfare was launched, ranking the world's leading food producers for their animal welfare practices and with only one month left before the UK is set to leave the European Union, the UK's most widespread food assurance scheme held a seminar at the House of Lords to announce the work it has put into understanding its strengths and weaknesses compared with other assurance schemes.

The International Benchmarking Study was announced at an event hosted by Baroness Lucy Neville-Rolfe at the House of Lords on Thursday 28^th February 2019.

Led by Dr Johnathan Birnie who studied at the Agricultural Institute of Northern Ireland and Queens University, the research and benchmarking project revealed that Red Tractor is a leader in some areas, it is lagging behind in others, such as environmental protection and stewardship, and farmer health and safety.

Dr Birnie said: “As a complete scheme Red Tractor is the highest performing on an international basis. While there are areas that could be developed, the existing scheme is comprehensive and a great foundation on which to build these additional standards. I have come away with a great amount of confidence in Red Tractor following my detailed comparable analysis of all food sectors globally.

Some of top-line findings include:

• Red Tractor was found to be consistently world-leading in traceability and food safety.
  
• In food safety Red Tractor performs well against all other schemes. Especially noted is the provision of specific and detailed standards.
  
• Red Tractor performed very well in terms of staff training standards. However, Worker Welfare or the Ethical Treatment of agricultural workers is not well covered by nearly all farm assurance schemes across the globe and provision of significant development is required across all schemes including Red Tractor.
  
• In Beef & Lamb, Red Tractor was found to be the strongest overall scheme in terms of breadth and depth. Red Tractor husbandry standards are above all broad coverage schemes but behind the high welfare schemes.
  
• In Dairy, Red Tractor is again the strongest overall scheme in terms of breadth and depth including traceability, biosecurity, record keeping and milk production standards (for example, hygiene of the milking parlour and handling of milk are all very good).
  
• In Produce, Red Tractor & GLOBALG.A.P are the strongest overall schemes by a considerable margin. In Crops, Red Tractor has particular strengths in areas such as crop storage and water management. Opportunities to develop the standards in areas such as soil management and control of manure and fertilisers were noted.
  
• In Pigs, Red Tractor was found to be strong in antibiotic usage monitoring, however there are opportunities for Red Tractor to develop its welfare standards in areas that have been identified, for example, space and enrichment.
  
• In broiler chickens new enrichment standards are very robust and almost in line with the RSPCA (bales, perches and pecking objects).
  
• The Red Tractor Chicken Scheme is world-leading in terms of its whole assurance chain i.e. assured breeder farms, hatcheries, broiler farms, catching, transport and processing. Areas to consider for future standards development include: stocking density, lighting and genetics (slow growing breeds).

Red Tractor CEO, Jim Moseley said: “Our standards are world-class as is evidenced by this research and increases our determination to be the flagship of British food and farming. Our vision and the work we are already implementing to develop standards in certain areas will place Red Tractor firmly at the centre of UK agriculture worldwide. However, our focus remains working hard to ensure that every standard is in place on every farm, every day.”

The findings support Red Tractor’s planned development to cover specialist areas such as higher welfare, environmental enhancement and organic production.

Mr Moseley added: “While specialist schemes may have higher standards on specific single issues they do not offer the breadth across all aspects of farm production. Our ambition is to combine the current robust core of Red Tractor with additional standards on single issues to create a broader and stronger offer.”

The International Benchmarking Study was announced at an event hosted by Baroness Lucy Neville-Rolfe at the House of Lords on Thursday 28th February 2019.

Red Tractor is a world-leading farm and food assurance scheme that provides traceable and safe food for UK consumers. The Red Tractor logo can be found on millions of food items sold in supermarkets and restaurants across the country. "It’s an easy signpost for British consumers looking for food that they can trust," said Red Tractor in a news release.