Taking stock of the market

Game dealers are set to face one of the most challenging seasons yet, says Nick James

- Nick James

It hardly needs to be said that the aftermath of COVID-19 is going to have a seismic impact on the game market this season. All indications at the moment suggest that the volume of game that is going to be shot and placed into the food chain is likely to be some 60-65% of last season’s total. The effect of lockdown, social distancing and, in some cases, Guns not being able, or not feeling financially secure enough, to pay shoot deposits have contributed to this.

Some shoots will not be shooting at all, others will have reduced both the number of days and the number of birds and many may start later. What is still unclear is the question of grouse, particularly north of the Border. The numbers look to be good in certain areas but will there be Guns to shoot them? At the time of writing, things are starting to look a bit more positive, with hotels, such as Gleneagles in Scotland, having announced that they will reopen on 15 July, but people don’t tend to book grouse shooting a mere month in advance and the overseas market will pretty much be a write-off.

Grouse need to be shot when the numbers are high, but will there be a hungry market for this specialised and unique gamebird if elements of the hotel, restaurant and catering businesses (HRC) remain closed or are forced to operate at much-reduced capacity? Around 80% are sold within this sector, so it’s a legitimate concern.

Supermarkets pay a certain degree of lip service to feathered game but they will certainly not take up the slack created by a flagging HRC sector. Added to this, there are still a lot of nervous people out there. Will they return to eating out as before? Shooting hitherto brought in £2bn to the rural economy — it won’t this season.