NANCY NICOLSON FARMING EDITOR

International meat companies and their discerning customers from across the globe will congregate in Paris on Monday for SIAL, one of the world’s biggest exhibitions of food.

Top Scottish beef exporters and the industry’s promotional body, Quality Meat Scotland (QMS), will be there in force, flying the flag alongside 7,000 companies from 109 countries and fighting for an extra slice of lucrative international markets.

Scotland carries the advantage of having a strong story to tell of quality breeds, unrivalled traceability and a reputation for taste and flavour.

However, no one will deny that the discovery of a single animal diagnosed with BSE will cast a shadow over the national stand and make the job of exporters more delicate than it has been for several years.

QMS focus will now turn to reassuring old and potentially new customers that our beef remains world class, so in the circumstances, SIAL may be good timing.

What is certain is that when the news broke on Thursday, a collective shudder went through the Scottish farming industry.

It’s still too soon to know whether the case is the result of a genetic mutation, or if it was caused by an outside source, but every beef producer in the country will feel massive sympathy for their Aberdeenshire colleague who, despite always doing the “correct things”, has been caught up in a grim echo of the 1990s.

Devastating as this week has been, today’s beef industry is robust enough to withstand the heat.