Picture this: Scottish beef farmers are rubbing their hands in glee as they’re celebrating a big win for their industry. They are again able to sell their home-grown beef to a huge country and a great nation of beef eaters — Canada.
It’s something they can certainly cheer about because Canada relies on importing a lot of beef and boxed beef. We don’t produce enough beef here.
According to a news item, Scotch Beef recently landed in Canadian supermarkets for the first time in almost 20 years. The order, which was the first shipment of British beef to be exported to Canada since 1996, comes following the removal of a 19-year long import ban put in place at the height of the BSE crisis.
The removal of the ban last October allows 19 European countries, including the UK, to export beef to Canada. Quality Meat Scotland chairman Jim McLaren says there is a great opportunity for Scotch Beef in Canada.
He said Canadian consumers have a “genuine appetite for quality, grass-fed, hormone-free Scotch Beef.”
Hormone-free? Really! My goodness, I didn’t know that. They should contact A&W. Two years ago A&W made the decision to source their beef products from producers who are not using hormones or steroids. “Beef raised without the use of hormones and steroids” is their advertising slogan and it has driven up sales.
But they are honest, in a way. They don’t promote their beef as “hormone-free”. They also don’t advertise their beef as “Canadian beef” because most of their beef comes from Montana and from Australia. So this grass-fed Scotch beef would fit right in at A&W. A Root Beer with a Scotch Beef Burger!
Scottish Farm Minister Richard Lochhead said having prime Scotch Beef for sale in Canada was a huge milestone for Scotland’s beef industry.
I guess so.
On a more serious note, let’s take a look at Scotland’s beef industry. Cattle and sheep are usually reared extensively – they are mainly fed outside and on grass and they are only housed in the worst weather or when they are lambing or calving.
The beef industry is the single largest sector of Scottish agriculture. Scotch beef is world renowned for its quality.
Scotland had just under 436,000 breeding beef cows in 2014.
Total production of beef in 2013 was worth more than £756 million.
Beef cattle are kept on almost 9300 holdings.
Scotland has almost 30% of the UK herd of breeding cattle and 4% of the EU herd.
Farmers in the North West of Scotland, for example, tend to rear beef cattle until they are between 6-12 months old and then sell them as “stores” to farmers in lowland areas for fattening. Some lowland farmers only keep cattle for fattening or “finishing” and do not have any breeding animals.
European beef is amongst the most expensive in the world to produce and Scottish beef is at the top of that scale.
For that reason, the Scottish beef industry has positioned itself in high value markets through its industry led brand protocols for “Scotch Beef” and the early adoption of the EU’s Protected Geographical Indicator (PGI) scheme.
