Farm holidays are all about the food Unsold Northern Irish cattle face a standstill
FARMS that have diversified into tourism should be able to sell their own food to their visitors, but the lack of local meat processing facilities is a major obstacle to making this viable.
As Scotland’s agritourism sector prepares to gather for its annual conference, it has put fresh focus on the difficulties inherent in the seemingly simple business of feeding folk produce from the farm they are visiting.
Successful agritourism industries in other countries are based around a core agrifood offering, reinforcing the sector’s key selling point over other forms of rural tourism – it is wholly based on food producing farms, and visitors want to experience and appreciate that food producing journey from field to plate.
Scotland’s national strategy has set a target that 50% of agritourism farms will be able to offer guests a food and drink experience that incorporates the farm’s own produce by 2030, but small producers face particular challenges around logistics and processing in Scotland and often struggle to secure a margin that makes such production worthwhile.
Nikki Storrar, from the award-winning Ardross Farm Shop, which sells all of the Scotch beef and Scotch lamb reared on-farm, will speak at the conference, which takes place on December 6 and 7 at Perth Concert Hall.
As well as giving an oversight of the challenges in the supply chain and processing that need to be overcome to make offering food from farms a profitable and worthwhile experience, she will present case studies from other Scottish Agritourism members and discuss her own business.
Also sharing from experience will be Louise Urquhart, an Aberdeenshire farmer who sells pork and lamb direct through farmers markets, deliveries, an onfarm pop-up shop and a catering business. Faced with the challenge of a lack of private butchery services, she developed her own butchery business and is processing her own meat and offering the service to other agritourism businesses.
The session will be chaired by Jim McLaren MBE, farmer and chairman of NFU Mutual, who said: “People visiting Scotland’s countryside want to sample its full glory, including our farmers’ fantastic range of produce.
“Making it easier for farmers to offer their own produce will not only enhance tourists’ experience of Scotland but also help spread the word across the globe about the quality and excellence on offer.”
NORTHERN Irish cattle brought across for breeding sales this autumn face a sixmonth standstill if they can’t find a buyer.
Despite the UK and Northern Irish governments’ work on bespoke rules for special ‘international sales’, no mart is planning to host one for the remainder of 2022.
Marts are anxious about the amount of red tape required and the potential impact of health status and additional testing for domestic consigners. The rules have widely been condemned as impractical.
A spokesperson said: “To avail of the return certificate and therefore derogation from the six-month quarantine, the show/sale must be approved to operate to EU assembly standards.
“Whilst DAERA can confirm that the necessary approvals have been granted by UK Government officials, the date of the inaugural sale/ show operating to such rules has yet to be confirmed,” he said.
Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Islands, Mairi Gougeon, will address delegates and provide an update on the implementation of Scotland’s agritourism strategy a year on from launch.