February 27, 2007

Scotland boosts meat exports in 2006

Exports of beef from Scotland have reached a record of 10 million pounds since the ban on trade was lifted in May last year.

A survey of Scottish red meat companies by Quality Meat Scotland (QMS), the red meat industry body, has revealed around 4,000 metric tonnes of beef from Scotland have been exported into Europe in the last nine months.

QMS chairman Donald Biggar said the trade has grown steadily since restrictions were lifted but exceptional sales in November and December were the main factors that helped exporters hit the 10 million-pound mark.

Still, Biggar said the country has still a long way to go to reach high levels that it achieved ten years ago but he is confident that the industry is making progress as some sectors are devoted in helping Scottish meat seize a valuable chunk of the global market.

France, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium remain the key customers for beef from Scotland with much of the product being sold into the premium restaurants and butchery sectors in these countries. Significant inroads have been made in recent weeks into the higher volume supermarket trade in Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Italy. Intelligence suggests that cow beef made up a third of all beef exported from Scotland.

Scottish exports account for around 12 percent of the total UK figure.

In 1995 before the ban was imposed, 42,000 metric tons of Scottish beef were exported worth approximately 120 million pounds.