Day 096 - 03 Mar 95 - Page 30
1 A. I cannot supply enough. That is the problem.
2
3 Q. So they were not willing to pay as much as Tesco's were
4 paying?
5 A. I wish they would!
6
7 MR. JUSTICE BELL: There we are.
8
9 THE WITNESS: That is two completely different types of meat,
10 sir, one is for manufacture -----
11
12 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I follow that. If you are selling some kind
13 of prime cut, I do not know what it is, a particular one,
14 but let us suppose, just to illustrate it, of the pig at a
15 £1 a pound, if you were, just for round figures, an extra
16 20p would be an extra 20 per cent for, let us say, a
17 specific gain of a free range pig. If you were selling a
18 lesser cut which was going to be ground up into what is,
19 apparently, called sausage, if you were, at 40p a pound,
20 and it cost an extra 20p a pound to be free range, you
21 would be adding 50 per cent to the cost rather than 20 per
22 cent?
23 A. That is correct.
24
25 Q. Somewhere in between the balance is struck or a judgment is
26 made?
27 A. Yes.
28
29 Q. For better or worse?
30 A. That is correct.
31
32 MR. MORRIS: How much does McDonald's pay for a pound of pig
33 meat? How much does McKey pay for ----
34 A. I do not think I am willing to answer a commercial
35 question like that.
36
37 MR. RAMPTON: Please, I am not sure that is a relevant question.
38
39 MR. MORRIS: Of course it is relevant. It is fundamental to
40 knowing whether the commercial considerations override all
41 over considerations, how much they pay and how much they
42 are willing to pay and how much the difference would be.
43 For the sake of a fast buck, whether they are basically not
44 the slightest bit interested in the welfare of animals or
45 not.
46
47 THE WITNESS: No, that would be quite untrue to say that.
48
49 MR. MORRIS: How much do they pay for basically a pound?
50
51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not think you need answer in that way.
52 What I think you can answer, because it may be relevant to
53 the last one, is what is the relation of, if you can say,
54 yourself, the kind of meat which would go into a McDonald's
55 sausage with, for instance, a pork chop on the one hand or
56 a cut of pork which you would roast in your oven?
57 A. Right. I will give it to you in percentage terms.
58
59 Q. Yes. Would the roasting cut be more expensive than the
60 chop?
