Farmers could cash in on chicken feet by increasing exports to China for business after Brexit, a farming minister has said.
George Eustice said there were opportunities to increase exports of the popular snack to China and other regions where parts of the bird often rejected by British shoppers are highly sought after.
Ministers have previously agreed a deal to export pigs' trotters to China to increase access to new markets.
READ MORE: Analysis: Tom Gordon has his say on today's second independence referendum announcement
The comments came during a Commons debate led by DUP MP Ian Paisley (North Antrim) about the effect of Brexit on poultry producers.
Mr Eustice told MPs: "It never ceases to amaze me that chicken feet are a delicacy in China and can attract a high value, far, far higher than they can get here in the UK.
"But there are real opportunities to create value from parts of the carcass for which there is no market in the UK or indeed in Europe.
"The other point I would make is there has always been quite a worldwide trade in poultry because we consume more white poultry meat than we produce, so we import white poultry meat traditionally but we have also had to export dark poultry meat which is in demand in other parts of the world."
READ MORE: Analysis: Tom Gordon has his say on today's second independence referendum announcement
Mr Paisley also raised concerns about a cap on the number of migrant workers on the industry and called for a frictionless border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to prevent problems with movement of poultry.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel