Farmers go to war with retail giants
Foreign lamb sold as ‘Scottish’
SCOTTISH farmers are waging war on supermarkets after an undercover operation found stores selling imported lamb as homeproduced meat.
The National Farmers Union Scotland said a ‘shelfwatch’ secret shopper programme was launched to make sure all the major food chains were living up to previous commitments to support Scottish produce.
During the operation, the union, which represents 9,000 farmers, took photos in Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s, the Co-op, Morrisons, Aldi, Lidl and Marks and Spencer.
It said the surveillance, all north of the Border, found 50 per cent of the lamb on M&S shelves had been imported, despite the store previously vowing to stock 100 per cent Scottish produce this season.
The investigation also found shopping trolleys filled with £7.50 lamb’s legs from New Zealand in budget store Lidl.
A Tesco store in Perth had 100 packs of imported cuts displayed under a banner reading: ‘The Best Scottish Lamb in Season.’
NFU Scotland said it had contacted the supermarkets over the results, which it released in time for Easter.
President Andrew McCornick said: ‘Scottish farmers are coming through the difficer cult spring lambing period, and continue to be hard at work caring for newborn lambs. It’s frankly a slap in the face to many of us that supermarkets have failed to show strong support to Scotland’s
‘It’s frankly a slap in the face’
sheep farmers and their families over the Easter period.
‘We continue to urge Tesco and Asda to extend their season for buying home-produced lamb in a bid to boost sales. We will be asking questions of Morrisons, Marks and Spen- and Lidl, who have failed to maintain their previous good record on domestic sourcing this year.
‘Last year, Marks and Spencer made a commitment to source 100 per cent Scottish lamb for its Scottish stores this season. But this has not been followed through.’
But the findings were not all negative. Mr McCornick said: ‘Aldi must be commended for being the sole retailer found selling exclusively Scottish and UK lamb over the Easter period, meaning it is the only place shoppers are guaranteed to be able to buy Scottish ahead of Easter.
‘We also continue to be reassured by the commitment from the Co-op that it plans to move to 100 per cent homeproduced across all fresh meat later this year.
‘We look forward to seeing this driving success for Scottish farmers.’
A spokesman for Tesco said: ‘We are proud supporters of the Scottish lamb industry and we know lamb is an important product for our customers.
‘They tell us they want great price, quality and availability all year round and we always offer a range of quality lamb products, including Scottish lamb, across our everyday ranges and counters.’