Beef producers urged to act to cash in on Brexit

The Scottish meat industry will be unable to grasp the market opportunities which Brexit might present unless a concerted effort is made to reverse the long-term downward trend in Scotland’s beef herd, according to Frank Clark, president of the Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers.

Despite Scottish farmers enjoying the highest beef price in the world, the volume of cattle going through Scottish abattoirs had declined by 100,000 over the past ten years and was likely to continue this year, Clark told delegates attending the association’s annual meeting in Glasgow.

“We simply can’t allow this damaging decline to continue,” said Clark, who is sales director with one of Scotland’s largest beef and sheep processors, Mcintosh Donald.

“Farmers, all parts of the red meat chain and government must find a solution. It has to be an all-industry effort with no pinning of blame for the decline on another part of the chain.”

Clark said he was optimistic about the future but it was not going to be easy to achieve growth for Scotland’s livestock and red meat chain unless the industry could source the raw material to meet the requirements of potential new customers around the world keen to buy Scotch beef, lamb and pork.

“The reality of livestock farming in Scotland is that the sector is not ready to face the unrelenting heat of international competition,” he warned. “Our farmers need a helping hand from government to knock the sector into better shape.

“We need to go back to the drawingboardanddevisea support package to reverse the decline. It we’re going to get out of today’s livestock supply mess – and there’s no other word for it – we’re all going to have to get involved.”

Farmers and processors would have to become more efficient and retailers needed to commit a greater share of their profits to product purchase. In addition, the government would have to find the resources to help postbrexit export success become a governmentdriven reality rather than an industry-based responsibility.”

Clark appealed for greater certainty from the government about the “nuts and bolts” of the Brexit transition deal and the level of farm and business support which would be available.

“We’re going to be entering a much more competitive global marketplace than we’ve been in for the last 45 years,” he said.

“We’re not at all worried about that. We believe we can gain more than we lose, export more than we import and grow as an industry.

“But it won’t just happen – what we need now is certainty.”

Without that certainty, he added, the industry would find itself fighting for market share at home and abroad without the resources needed and without a “fair and equal” chance of success in competing with countries and businesses around the world who have been trading on the international stage for a very long time.