A survey of Scottish red meat companies by Quality Meat Scotland, the red meat industry body, has revealed around 4000 tonnes of beef from Scotland have been exported into Europe in the last nine months.

QMS Chairman Donald Biggar said: “This is a milestone figure along what we know is a very long road in rebuilding export trade for one of Scotland’s best known food brands.

“The trade has grown steadily since trading restrictions were lifted but an exceptional sales period in November and December has helped the Scottish red meat companies that are exporting hit the £10 million mark.

“There is still some way to go till we reach levels of ten years ago but we have a team of agents on the ground in Europe dedicated to helping Scottish red meat companies build this valuable sector of the market. I am confident we are making excellent progress.”

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 cowbeef made up a third of all beef exported from Scotland.

Scottish companies are already indicating they want to have a sizable presence on the QMS Scottish red meat industry stand at Anuga in Germany later this year, an event many consider to be the most important in the global food fair calendar.

TheCattleSite News Desk