POULTRY processor Avara has said it is to help farmers reduce phosphate run-off as it looks to combat criticism of its role in pollution in the river Wye.

Avara, which has 120 supply farms within the River Wye catchment producing 160,000 tonnes of manure annually, has said it wants its poultry farmers to adopt technology that turns manure into heat and power by burning it on-farm.

Farmers will also be asked to process litter through three anaerobic digestion plants, including a new site planned near Ledbury in Herefordshire capable of handling 600 tonnes a week, according to Avara’s ‘2025 Roadmap’.

The US-owned company and others have come under pressure from river and wildlife campaigners after a 2020 study by Natural Resources Wales (NRW) found that more than half the River Wye failed to meet targets on pollution.

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In its statement, Avara acknowledges that if manure from its supplier is applied incorrectly, excess phosphates could pollute the River Wye through soil diffusion.

Going forward, it wants the company and its suppliers to collaboratively take “full accountability for the phosphorus used in its processes’’.

Radnorshire broiler producer Sharon Hammond, whose family supplies Avara with 120,000 broilers per crop, is “100 per cent’’ behind the plan.

“I am so glad that we are growing for Avara because together we are leading the way on this, and the responsibility is not just left to us as individual growers, Avara is being very proactive and is very good at keeping us informed,’’ she says.

“They have consulted with us and kept us informed with pretty regular meetings as well as everything that comes out by email.’’
Mrs Hammond said it “made sense’’ that Avara was leading on this, not farmers.

“It would be a huge undertaking for farmers to do this in isolation,’’ she believed.

While campaigners like River Action have welcomed the initiative, its founder, Charles Watson, said Avara’s plan would be studied “with great interest’’.

Mr Watson said it left many questions unanswered “not least what specific plans are there to end the massive import of phosphates into the catchment in the form of the huge quantities of phosphate-rich soy-based chicken feed from Avara’s parent company Cargill,’’ he added.

Radnorshire Wildlife Trust is concerned about the focus on anaerobic digestors and associated environmental impacts.

Chief executive James Hitchcock said the trust would like to see plans for buffering the river banks within the catchment and confirmation that creating wetlands and natural solutions are in the pipeline.

The River Wye flows through Powys, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire.
In September 2022, NRW said the river was being polluted by the “spreading of manure from intensive poultry units’’.

 

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