Sheep sector faces fight to avoid ‘doomsday scenario’
Scotland’s sheep farmers need to make their voices heard loud and clear to avoid the very real prospect of a potential doomsday scenario wiping the industry from the face of the country’s hills and glens.
Speaking at yesterday’s Scotsheep in Ayrshire, Quality Meat Scotland chairman Jim Mclaren said that every lobbying organisation associated with Scotland’s sheep sector should be camped outside the office of UK Secretary of State Michael Gove, hammering home the dire consequences of a poor trade deal.
“If the sector wants to avoid the potential doomsday scenario of exports to the EU being effectively cut off and unrestricted imports into the country, the industry needs to make its voice heard loud and clear,” said Mclaren.
Admitting that there were many possible outcomes from the trade negotiations, he said he was very concerned that the sheep industry had already been written off and was set to be used as a bargaining chip in talks.
He said a bad deal on trade would see a dramatic decline in profitability in the sector which would result in livestock numbers plummeting, rural depopulation and large areas of
0 Scotland’s sheep sector faces uncertain future the countryside reverting to scrub.
But the current president of the Institute of Auctioneers and Appraisers, Scott Donaldson, said that it was important that the industry kept a weather eye on other legislative developments as well as the threats of Brexit.
Expressing fears over the recent consultation on the possible banning of the live export of animals, he said that many ferry trips bringing sheep to mainland Scotland from the islands were actually longer than the Dover to Calais trip to the continent.
He also added that while a bad Brexit deal could mean that exports of carcase and cuts to the EU could attract a tariffs of between 30 and 60 per cent, this was not the case for live exports.
The industry was also warned not to ignore the opportunities offered to the UK sheep industry by the Halal market – and not to automatically dismiss it out of hand on welfare grounds.
AHDB Hal-al specialist Awal Fuseini said that prestunning was accepted by a large proportion of the Muslim population, provided the animal was still alive at the point of slaughter.
“And the use of electrostunning means that there is little or no difference in the process used in the normal slaughtering of an animal – it is a misunderstanding to think that welfare is compromised in such system,”
Stating that the Muslim population was growing in the UK he added that not only did this sector consist of young, increasingly affluent individuals, but they tended to consume considerably more lamb than other sectors of the community.