Industry has a beef about lack of real investment
A “big investment” from government is required to reverse the downward trend in beef production in Scotland, according to the Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers (SAMW).
Speaking at the association’s annual meeting in Glasgow, where he was followed on the platform by Scotland’s rural economy minister Fergus Ewing, incoming SAMW president Andy Mcgowan said investment now would pay dividends in spades in the years to come.
“What we need now is for real money to be invested in the revival of cattle production in Scotland and I don’t think we should be ashamed as farmers and processors of asking for a big investment from government to realise our undoubted potential,” Mcgowan said.
“Initiatives introduced by the Scottish Government, such as the calf support and beef efficiency schemes, have proved ineffective in reversing the decline in Scotland’s national beef herd which is stuck in a downward production spiral which has seen cattle numbers fall by 25 per cent in ten years.” Mcgowan said the meat industry was keen to play its part in helping to achieve the £30 billion turnover target by 2030 set by Scotland Food and Drink but this wasn’t going to happen without government and commercial investment.
“We need our share of that investment if Scotland’s red meat industry is to play a full part in helping to deliver this lofty ambition,” he said.
“Irrespective of the Brexit outcome, it was vital that the EU government gave the Scottish Government the flexibility to tailor a rural support programme which delivered for rural Scotland.
“Promises of exciting new trade deals and global opportunities, glibly given by politicians of all shades back in 2016, need to be properly secured and delivered.”
A successor to the now lapsed Food Processing and Marketing Grants Scheme, which had been the catalyst for considerable investment in the meat industry, was urgently needed to enable meat processors to continue investing in processing capacity to enable it to compete in the highly competitive international meat market, Mcgowan argued.
It would be important that inspection standards in meat processing plants were maintained if Britain left the EU and he welcomed the review currently being carried out by Food Standards Scotland to ensure statutory service levels are maintained.
But he hit out at the high costs of veterinary inspections at abattoirs which were costing operators £40 per hour for a vet and over £30 for a meat inspector, equating to annual salaries of £84,000 and £62,000 while individual vets were scarcely achieving an annual salary of £25,000.