Welsh butchers shine despite wet day at the Royal Welsh

Eight Welsh Butchers have been crowned National Champions after a going head to head with their regional counterparts.

They were the winners of the all-Wales 2009 Awards for Innovation and Excellence in Meat Products, which was held at Hybu Cig Cymru-Meat Promotion Wales' stand at the Royal Welsh Show.

After tasting success during the South and North Wales regional heats held in Swansea and Llandudno in the spring, the category winners went head to head to be crowned the Wales Champion.

Fishguard's Preseli Gold Sausage Company took home three of the twelve categories including the Traditional Pork Sausage, Speciality Sausage Pork with their Pork and Cracked Black Pepper Sausage and the Home Cured Gammon Category for their Guinness and Black Treacle Gammon.

Holywell's FR Kennedy and Rikki Lloyd Butchers of Welshpool both walked away with two awards while Edwards of Conwy, Clarkes Butchers from Caldicot, Bethesda Farm Shop from Narbeth and Vaughans Family Butchers of Penyffordd near Chester all won one award each.

Graham Titchener, HCC's Marketing Executive, said "I want to congratulate all the winners on their success. 2009 has been a really successful year for this competition and it's clear from the quality of products that we've seen that all the butchers who entered put in an amazing amount of effort.

"Butchers in Wales offer a fantastic service by not only offering a wide range of high quality products but also the expert advice they can offer to consumers."

Notes

Below is a list of the winners from this year's awards.