Focus on Scotland: Winds of change

That is how Alan Craig, president of the Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers (SAMW) describes what he perceives as Food Standards Agency (FSA) inefficiences when it comes to meat inspection.

“It’s really one of those things where we see the elephant, we recognise the elephant, but you have got to live with it and you have got to pay for it. Well I don’t really think that is a clever place to be in — and I don’t think it is fair to ask the industry to accept that point.”

This is, of course, how you would expect him to describe the much-maligned service that is offered by the FSA — especially when his own organisation is leading an industry-wide move to establish a Scottish system.

Those plans, however, stand at a crossroads, with various options having already been presented to Scottish Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lockhead. However, last month the FSA ratified its plans to go ahead with full cost recovery in 2012 — albeit with a slightly juicy bone to protestors in the form of slashing a proposal to also pay for its pension deficit.

Despite this last-minute concession, plans are still afoot for a Scottish system and Craig is confident of its success, saying he would hope to see a paper on it from the Scottish government “by the end of the year”. That being said, he does have a slight air of resignation when describing the current status quo.

“We have been talking about this now for about four years now and we don’t seem to be any further on today than we were four years ago,” he explains. “We have had initiatives to reduce costs, we’ve been told costs have been reduced, but the FSA still doesn’t enjoy the confidence of the industry, when it comes to the industry being content that the FSA is now an efficient organisation, a professional organisation and capable of delivering a consistently professional service on a day-to-day basis.

“We’ve actually put forward to the minister, the Cabinet Secretary Richard Lockhead, two or three different options,” adds Craig. “We’re not really trying to throw the baby out with the bath water, but there is the opportunity for a wider Scottish food safety service or system including local authority opportunities as well.”

Besides this wider mandate, SAMW has also presented a model where the FSA still controls the audit trail, the standard setting, the scientific consultancy and advice that they give — and day-to-day management would then be managed jointly with an industry body board. This, says Craig  would give “all stakeholders an input into the process”.

So what has been the response from the powers that be regarding their proposals? “It’s too early to say at this stage. The FSA has recognised that it believes a presentation or a proposal has been put to the Scottish ministers, but it doesn’t seem to have seen it yet. I don’t say that will remain the case. It will no doubt be consulted by the cabinet secretary, once he has had time to consider it,” adds Craig.

One thing is for sure; the SAMW plans are not without their supporters. Jim McLaren, the newly appointed chairman of Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) describes the Scottish meat inspection devolution plans as “a real opportunity”.

“QMS is very supportive of anything that can be done to improve the prosperity of the industry and the simple dumping  — that’s how I would describe it — of inflated costs on to the industry is simply unacceptable,” says McLaren.

“We are not a political lobbying organisation and it is not our role to get heavily involved in that, but we are supportive of the proposals coming forward from SAMW, looking at a range of models that could be used in Scotland to reduce costs and maximise labour currently doing these jobs. There are some really detailed proposals, costed and worked up.

“The principle has to be remove costs. Yes, we accept the nod towards that with the pension deficit, which was a real issue. I am hopeful that there will be solution to this for Scotland and that it will see a dramatic reduction in the costs.”

Recovering from CAP

Meanwhile, inspection issues aside, Scotland’s recovery from the hangover of the decoupling of CAP payments continues to take its first few positive steps. The Scottish government’s December Agricultural Survey shows that the nation’s beef herd increased by 11,111 or 2.4% in December 2010, compared with the same month the year before — and slightly higher than the 1.3% that was reported in last June’s census. Overall, there was 0.5% hike of 8,045 cattle to 1.76m, with a continuing trend showing a move from dairy to beef. The dairy herd was down by 1.4% or 2,514.

For Stuart Ashworth, head of economic services at QMS, however, one swallow does not make a spring and he is keenly awaiting the results of this month’s survey. “Yes, there is evidence in the December census of a slight increase in the overall herd,” he says.

“However, I am just a little nervous that it is a quirk of the figures, reflecting a further switch to spring calving, and that when we get to this June what will we see is that there has been an increase in the spring calvers and a decrease in the autumn ones. So over the piece, the overall increase in the total herd will not be as big as a 2.4% increase would suggest from December.”

Despite predicting this balancing-out effect, Ashworth does harbour some confidence in Scotland’s beef herd. “Consequently, I would be pretty confident that the Scottish beef herd has at least stopped declining and I would be slightly hopeful that it is in the process of edging forward. The signs are more positive than negative.”

Using City lingo, he harks to the situation as approaching something of a tipping point. “We have the potential to move out of trend. I would like to see another set of census figures to give me total confidence. But if I were a betting man — although I wouldn’t put my bottom dollar on it — but I would go a wee bit down on my heap of dollars

that it has stabilised and it might be moving forward.”

His opinions are echoed by McLaren who says the cattle and sheep sector is enjoying a revival on the back of better pricing, but he warns: “The problem, of course, is the processing industry where there is real difficulty in passing increased costs of products up the chain to the consumer via the multiple retailer.”

However, he tempers this by highlighting the success of fifth-quarter produce in Scotland during the last 12 months. “Some of the nose-to-tail eating initiatives, many of them led by celebrity chefs, have financially improved some of that uptake.”

And he adds that the increase in the December beef herd has come about as a result of improved pricing. “That was a period where beef prices were starting to pick up and, of course, they have moved on quite considerably since then. So there is confidence coming in, particularly in the spring and early summer of 2010.

“Also, there was a bit of a switch from dairy going on; there were quite a few chaps, myself included, who have moved out of dairy into beef just around that period.”

Decline in sheep slows

The same positivity is somewhat down-played when it comes to the nation’s sheep — this is despite the rate of decline slowing down. The Scottish census in December shows that the total number of sheep in the country declined by 0.7% to 4.58m compared with the year before — a slightly lower fall than the 2.4% reported in June. As Craig explains: “We had to get to a fairly low base before that started to climb — and it is based on a fairly dramatic increase in the price of ‘fat’ lambs.”

Ashworth adds: “If you are clutching at straws in the wind, the rate of decline in the last census was significantly less than it had been a little bit earlier. And if you look in the December census, there could be a wee bit of local difficulty — in that we had that hell of a bad spring and there could have been quite a lot of ewes killed.”

The problem is that once a producer has left behind lambs, it is much harder for them to try and get back into the industry. “The issue with keeping lambs is that it’s not an easy existence, it’s a difficult existence and sometime it’s not that fulfilling,” says Craig. “And the problem is that, once you are out, you tend to stay out. They say that it is a lot easier to go from 10 to 10,000 sheep than from 0 to 10.”

Opinion is unified when it comes to the cause of the decline — decoupling. With the next round of CAP reform under way, the nation is as equally together on the fact that lessons should be learnt from the past. Craig says: “The situation goes way back to 2003, when we first started consulting about single farm payments and I think our association’s view at the time was well-documented — predicting what would happen. It has now come to pass and stock numbers have actually fallen.

“That is another thing that we were absolutely loud and clear about, we still say that, in 2005, what we removed was a security safety net of volume. And we removed it entirely, saying we would rely on the strength of the marketplace, which, on the face of it, sounds a risky strategy. I think that has come to bear as well.

“We are still very much of the opinion that we would prefer to see a form of coupled arrangement put back in place to give some sort of stability that would make production worth it.”

As Ashworth says: “Well, we need the businesses to be profitable and free-standing. Decoupling means that the link between stock and support has been broken. The fact that we have decoupled now means the whole element of managing stock for your business has changed. You don’t necessarily need to have the stock.”

Scottish marketing makes impact in south

The past 12 months has seen QMS make great strides in its work to promote Scotch Beef, Scotch Lamb and Specially Selected Pork. A £1m push south of the border, particularly in London, has reaped rewards when it comes to recognition of its fare.

A survey in Scotland, undertaken at the end of last year, reveals that a record 78% of consumers are aware of the Scotch Lamb brand, with 92% of consumers aware of the Scotch Beef brand. And, results of a second IGD survey at the end of 2010 also showed that 40% of Londoners are aware of the Scotch Beef brand – making it the red meat brand with the strongest consumer awareness in the capital, according to QMS.

The promotional push on behalf of the Scottish red meat industry included activity in retailers, butchers’ shops and foodservice and the first-ever umbrella advertising activity covering all three brands – Scotch Beef, Scotch Lamb and Specially Selected Pork.

The £230,000 ‘Behind the Label’ campaign started in September and was aimed at increasing consumer awareness of the people, skills and tradition behind all three brands. This reinforced two further campaigns. A £250,000 ‘Scotch Lamb – It’s Hot This Autumn’ campaign, highlighting the succulence and seasonality of lamb in autumn, was supported by activity encouraging consumers to enjoy Scotch Lamb as their St Andrew’s Day meal. A further £600,000 Scotch Beef campaign, targeting Scotland and London, included a very successful strategic move away from underground advertising in the capital city, where over 400 roadside 48-sheet ‘Great Quality of Taste’ posters, featuring the latest Glen creative, were located at key rush-hour hotspots.

Earlier this year, the organisation also signed up rugby ace Chris Paterson as the face of a new campaign to raise the profile of red meat’s role in a healthy diet. Paterson, one of the country’s most capped players and top scorers, will be appearing in action on posters in more than 300 Scotch Butchers’ Club shops. Entitled ‘Strength. Energy. Growth – Red Meat Has It All’, the campaign aims to highlight the important role of red meat in a healthy diet and includes a booklet of simple, nutritious recipes featuring Scotch Lamb, Scotch Beef and Specially Selected Pork.

What is more, QMS has pledged to spend £2.8m on further promotional campaigns in the year ahead. With an estimated levy income of £4.8m – and an additional £1m of further grant income – QMS said it would also be spending £1.6m on activities to “improve industry efficiency and resilience”. Among the promotions, QMS has promised to create a new mobile phone app for providing tips and says it will step up its ‘Behind the label’ campaign.

The organisation plans to promote the sustainable merits of Scottish fare. In particular, QMS is keen to highlight the nation’s success story for protein diversion – as some 67% of its land is only fit for grazing cattle or sheep. As McLaren says: “The majority of Scottish land can do nothing else but grow grass or rough vegetation for ruminants. This means we convert that protein into something that is edible for humans in a very efficient manner.

“As part of our ‘Behind the Label’ campaign, we are going to look much wider now at what the label stands for – and issues like protein diversion, the fallacy of embedded water, which again doesn’t apply to the same level here in Scotland, issues surrounding animal welfare and emissions are issues that we can highlight.”

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