Strong demand for steel shot game

‘Game dealer struggles to find enough pheasants to satisfy retail demand’. Believe it or not, this is what happened in the 2021-22 season; not something you would have expected to hear back in 2019.

In the 2021-22 season, there was more demand for British Game Assured non-lead shot game than we could satisfy. That cost the game dealers money. One dealer turned down £130k of business per week because they didn’t have enough BGA assured steel shot game this season. That's a lot of pheasant. What's more we - as a shooting community - missed the opportunity for more people to try the delights of game, and the marketing power that this brings with it.

Consumer habits drive the charge for steel shot game

Whilst some have been up in arms about the move away from lead being forced upon them, quietly, behind the scenes (sped up by the pandemic) consumer trends have been changing, and changing fast. The conversation is no longer about what we are being told to do, it is about what we must do to keep the vital retail channels for game open.

In February 2022, I attended the sporting agents and shoot managers symposium and listened to a representative from a major food retailer talk about the high welfare standards they demand of their suppliers to meet the trajectory of consumer demand.

He explained that we have a great opportunity: we have a free range, low carbon product with huge environmental benefits, that is also being high in protein and low in fat. There’s not many that can say that. It can also be sold all year-round as the average consumer has no idea that we only shoot feathered game from 12th August to 1st February.

However, it has to be quality assured from egg to plate, something that British Game Assurance offers in its membership, and must be shot with a non-toxic substance. Otherwise, the retailers simply can’t sell it, consumers won’t buy it. The knock-on effect is that we can’t justify the numbers we shoot.

So it really is up to us. We can be so proud of the food that we produce on a shoot day, but that also means we have to handle it with respect, up our standards and shoot it with the right material.

Next time someone grumbles to you about the situation, do share these thoughts with them. I agree, it’s not plain sailing, there are complications to overcome with guns and supply of materials, but we’ve got a wonderful opportunity and 4 years ago, we definitely couldn’t say that.