IN Brief:
- 2 Sisters is replacing nearly a quarter of imported soymeal with British-grown oilseed rape and beans.
- The company expects to buy around 150,000 tonnes annually from UK farmers.
- The feed strategy forms part of a wider NextGen plan targeting lower emissions, domestic resilience, and net zero by 2035.
2 Sisters Food Group is shifting part of its poultry feed supply chain toward British-grown crops, replacing nearly a quarter of imported soymeal with oilseed rape and beans sourced from UK farmers.
The poultry processor expects the move to represent a £50 million boost to British agriculture, with around 150,000 tonnes of homegrown crop inputs purchased annually. The change forms part of the company’s NextGen strategy, which includes commitments around net zero, lower-carbon poultry, animal welfare, automation, and greater food system resilience.
The feed reformulation is intended to reduce reliance on imported soy, a long-running pressure point for poultry production because of cost volatility, land-use concerns, and exposure to deforestation-linked supply chains. By substituting part of its soymeal requirement with domestic crops, 2 Sisters is targeting one of the most difficult emissions areas in meat production: upstream feed.
The business has also set out measures around land-conversion risk in South America, including work with farms where no land conversion has taken place for more than 18 years. Premium payments are being extended to growers to cover all land conversion, rather than deforestation alone, broadening the focus to ecosystems such as native grasslands.
Feed remains one of the most material emissions drivers in poultry production. Processing plants can reduce energy use, improve refrigeration efficiency, optimise water consumption, and recover heat, but a large share of the footprint sits before birds enter the factory gate. Scope 3 emissions linked to crop cultivation, land-use change, shipping, milling, and farm operations have therefore become central to poultry sustainability plans.
2 Sisters expects the latest measures to cut emissions by almost 670,000 tonnes, equating to a reduction of more than 20% in Scope 3 emissions. The company has also highlighted a longer-term reduction in the carbon footprint of its chicken over the past three decades.
The shift gives UK arable farmers a clearer route into poultry feed supply chains as domestic food security is tested by geopolitical risk, weather volatility, and imported input costs. Oilseed rape and beans have attracted greater attention because they can reduce dependence on commodity flows exposed to currency movement, freight disruption, and changing land-use regulation.
Poultry feed substitution is not a simple sustainability lever. Reformulation has to protect bird performance, growth rates, feed conversion, carcass quality, and cost efficiency. Changes to protein sources also affect milling, logistics, ingredient storage, quality assurance, and supplier contracting. A feed change at this scale sits close to operational strategy, not just corporate carbon reporting.
Retailers and foodservice customers are also increasing pressure on suppliers to quantify and reduce embedded emissions. Poultry is often positioned as a lower-carbon meat compared with beef or lamb, but that advantage is being scrutinised more closely as customers demand detailed supply chain data and credible land-use policies.
Domestic sourcing gives processors stronger visibility over crop production, although UK crop availability remains exposed to weather, disease, input costs, and farmer planting decisions. A larger feed market for oilseed rape and beans could support acreage and crop rotation decisions where pricing, contracts, and quality specifications work for growers.
The poultry sector is still managing tight margins, labour pressure, animal health risk, and retailer cost discipline. Feed is the largest variable cost in many poultry systems, and reducing exposure to imported protein markets can improve resilience as well as environmental performance.
2 Sisters’ strategy points toward a more integrated UK poultry model, drawing processors, feed suppliers, and farmers into longer-term sourcing arrangements. Commercial viability will depend on whether domestic protein crops can deliver the consistency, scale, and price discipline required by a high-volume poultry operation.