Social media campaign to support Scottish beef
A #Backscotchbeef social media campaign is being launched to draw attention to the prolonged threeyear low in cattle prices – which farming groups claim is putting the continued production of world famous Scotch beef in jeopardy.
With little sign of any relief in the slump in prices being suffered by farmers across the country, NFU Scotland yesterday said it was stepping up action to raise awareness of the issue – including the #Backscotchbeef campaign which will try to encourage support for Scottish beef farmers.
A nationwide stakeholders’ summit to discuss the dire straits in which the industry finds itself is also being organised for next month in an attempt to find long-term solutions to the issue of low farmgate prices.
The union yesterday said that, at current prices, producers were losing more than £200 a head on their cattle – a situation which it said was “unsustainable”.
“The current price we are receiving for our beef is well out of step of our cost of production,” said union president Andrew Mccornick, who added that production in a beef enterprise required years of planning – and ultimately required a sustainable end price. “Without a sharp turnaround in the beef price, the viability of family farms and crofts across Scotland will be severely damaged, irreparably for some,” warned Mccornick Commenting on the summit meeting he said: “While we appreciate there’s no simple fix, we must do everything possible to ensure the ambitious next generation of farmers and crofters are given a fair opportunity.”
As part of its shelf watch activity, which keeps an eye on supermarket offerings, Mccornick said the union was currently carrying out a beef burger shelf watch.
“The aim of this is to establish which of the nation’s retailers are supporting Scottish beef farmers and crofters.”
He added that industry commentators had also claimed that the wholesale and catering sector wasn’t doing enough to support home-produced beef: “Next week we will be publishing results of our beef burger shelf watch which will demonstrate the retailers who are supporting Scottish production, and the ones that aren’t. We also need commitment from the catering sector, many of whom are currently putting profit before provenance.”
Mccornick said that the message that everyone should back Scotch Beef PGI was clear: “Scottish livestock farms want to be viable in the future, to continue to feed the nation while delivering for Scotland’s environment and contributing to our climate change targets. In order to deliver for the nation, we need distinct action from the food chain and from those in power.
“We need clearer labelling for processed beef products, increased promotion of our high-quality Scotch Beef PGI and certainty about government support for the Scottish livestock sector in the coming years.”