Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) has launched a new five-year strategy to ‘make Scotland the choice for premium red meat across the world’.
The strategy was launched at QMS’s annual industry breakfast briefing at the Royal Highland Show on Friday. Its aim is to lead the development of Scotland’s red meat sector by driving demand from consumers who recognise the brands as a mark on integrity, provenance and with sustainability at its core.
Built around three strategic pillars; Provenance; Productivity and Profitability; Planet and Place, QMS said the five-year plan will lead the development of Scotland’s red meat sector by launching ‘game-changing’ projects that will turn the strategy into action, enabling the Scotch and Specially Selected Pork brands to compete in both the home and global markets.
The three projects, which are designed to grow the Scottish Red Meat Sector, include advancing work on genomics, boosting brand integrity with world-leading assurance for customers, and securing funding for a verification system for the eating quality of Scottish red meat proteins.
The Scotch and Specially Selected Pork brands will also embrace new sustainability criteria, this will be delivered within the scope of the quality assurance schemes.
In the Autumn, the QMS team is planning a strategy engagement roadshow, collaborating with its the supply chain to provide the opportunity for them to feed into the implementation plans that will underpin the strategy.
QMS chair Kate Rowell said: “Our industry, like so many others, has gone through a period of unprecedented volatility.
“A global pandemic, a constitutional upheaval from leaving the European Union and a war on our Continent have all erupted in the last three years. Added to that, there is the ongoing climate emergency which is challenging the way the world lives, works, and consumes. Food security pressures are growing and, closer to home, wholesale change to agriculture policy is on the horizon.
“Our new vision is to make Scotland the premium choice for red meat across the globe. Ambitious and bold, it reflects both the passion we have for the red meat supply chain we work on behalf of and our belief in its potential.”
Sarah Millar, Chief Executive at QMS, said: “Our aim is to make Scotland the choice for premium red meat, but we must be unwavering and commercial in our focus in order to achieve this.”
QMS also unveiled an independent impact report, announced at last year’s show, showing that the Scottish red meat industry outperformed the rest of the UK by £130 million in production and £124 million in retail performances between 2016 and 2022. It estimated that for every £1 invested in QMS by levy payers, there has been £5.50 of benefit to the industry at production level compared to the rest of the UK.
Food security
QMS also launched its latest Red Meat Industry Profile report highlighting the sector’s contribution to food security and the rural economy.
The 2023 report shows that production continued throughout this challenging period and highlights that turnover from red meat processing rose for a third consecutive year – generating an estimated £926 million of output for the Scottish economy.
Iain Macdonald, Market Intelligence Manager at QMS and author of the report, said: “Turnover from red meat processing is estimated to have risen for a third consecutive year, lifting 5% to £926 million. Revenue generated from beef, offal, hides and skins are all estimated to have risen, partially offset by reduced revenue from lamb and pork sales.
In the pig sector, the report highlighted that the severe challenges continued for the first half of 2022. “Elevated feed costs and a backlog of slaughter-ready pigs waiting to be processed weighed on margins and led to further losses for producers,” Mr Macdonald added.
“By the end of the year, a sharp contraction in breeding pig numbers had fed through to supplies, providing further support to market prices, while feed costs had begun to fall back. A tightening of supply in the EU also pushed up import prices, supporting the competitiveness of home-produced pork in the domestic and export markets.”
The report found that despite employment in the primary processing sector being estimated to have reduced by around 4%, the overall wage bill remained unchanged due to the impact of a tight labour market on wages and salaries. As the year progressed, labour supply challenges began to ease through the arrival of new staff from outside Europe.