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Opportunities for the Scottish Beef Council:
but let’s stop the squabbling
Edwin Gillanders
Editor, Farm North East
Filed 09 June 06
©FarmNorthEast
This article,
originally published as a Leader in Farm North East, No 15, June
2006,
is reproduced here by kind permission of its author and the journal
Things are looking up for beef producers. After
ten frustrating years, the beef export market has re-opened and
farmers have at last rid themselves of the shackles imposed in 1996
as a result of a serious problem for the industry – BSE –
escalating into a major crisis because of political ineptitude.
Scotland’s rural development minister, Ross
Finnie, has been doing the rounds of European capitals wining and
dining the great and good of the European meat and hospitality industries
at a series of industry functions organised by Quality Meat Scotland
designed to get Scotch beef back into the European psyche.
But that is the gloss. What is more important
is that Scotch beef is actually moving back into Europe and a number
of companies have been working away quietly without fanfare winning
back markets lost to the Irish and South Americans in the debacle
that was BSE.
It will be a hard, slow job to rebuild an export
trade which was worth £120 million a year to Scotland at 1996
values. Company structures, personnel and ‘phone numbers have
changed, the trade itself has moved on with an increasing demand
for further processed cuts rather than sides or primals, and our
overseas competitors have been assiduous in filling the gap –
often, it should, be noted with a quality product rivalling the
Scotch brand.
So there is no room for complacency. But it’s
encouraging that the BSE crisis doesn’t appear to have harmed
the integrity of the Scotch brand and the perception – and
hopefully reality – remains that Scotch beef is still the
best in the world.
The other factor often forgotten is the exchange
rate difference compared with a decade ago. The beef export trade
in the early 1990’s was built up on the back of a weak pound.
Today, the pound is strong against the euro which is making Scotch
beef an expensive product once it reaches Continental dinner plates.
Nor can the home market be ignored. It is obviously
still the most important market for Scotch beef – and the
only market for 10 years – so it is vital that farmers and
meat wholesalers continue to supply customers who have remained
loyal and have seen the industry through those difficult times.
It’s good that we now have another player
in the market to give supermarket buyers a run for their money but
it’s not something to gloat about. Beef farmers patently need
more for their cattle to ensure long-term sustainability but what
is needed is a gradual rise in price which gives farmers a profit
without incurring consumer resistance.
The meat industry has done a remarkable job in
rebuilding home consumption of beef since the slump in the immediate
aftermath of BSE and it would be a tragedy if that success was now
to be undermined.
What we also need in Scotland is a united industry
to enable all sectors to take advantage of the opportunities which
are opening up. The recent, long-running internecine warfare within
the National Beef Association in Scotland has been destructive,
self-indulgent, distracting and a sad spectacle to behold. Personalities
and egos seem to have got in the way of common sense.
A separate organisation purporting to represent
beef producers in Scotland is neither necessary nor desirable. It
is a totally unnecessary duplication of effort – not to mention
cost – as both organisations will have exactly the same goals
and objectives.
The NBA’s chief executive, Robert Forster,
may ruffle feathers - that is his job - and whether you agree or
disagree with how he goes about it, there is no gainsaying the fact
that the NBA has done much in its short existence to raise the profile
of the beef industry and promote the interests of beef producers
in the corridors of power. If some sensitive souls in the supermarket
fraternity or meat industry are upset, so be it. They only understand
tough talking.
There may be internal issues of financial management
to be addressed within NBA – and are being addressed by new
chairman, Duff Burrell – and the dissidents (after all, they
are not exactly shrinking violets) could surely have made their
point more effectively from within the organisation rather than
setting up a break-away group.
Both the NBA and the proposed new organisation,
the Scottish Beef Cattle Association, will be weaker as a result.
Surely it a case of united we stand, divided we fall.
Edwin Gillanders
Editor
Finis
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