THERE HAS to be an end to the “interchangeable messages of doom” emanating from the beef sector, according to Quality Meat Scotland chairman Jim McLaren.
Speaking in Crieff at the annual conference of SAOS, the co-operative umbrella body, he did not deny for a minute there were challenges but there were also great opportunities.
“Let’s talk the business up,” he said, while carefully avoiding entering the debate over CAP implementation.
Mr McLaren’s words may well be a guide to the direction in which he will steer the government-sponsored beef action group which Cabinet Secretary Richard Lochhead has asked him to chair.
He told delegates there were market opportunities as yet untapped for red meat but a number of issues had to be tackled.
“Maintaining critical mass has to be at the top of the agenda as has building up the numbers of Scottish reared cattle, lambs and pigs slaughtered in the country rather than heading south.
“There has been a 10-year-long decline in all three species which has to be reversed.
“The suckler herd, which provide 80% of calves for registration has fallen from 535,000 to 450,000 since 1998.”
The beef sector was important in Scotland but the 165,000 tonnes produced annually accounted for only 20% of UK production, 2.2% of EU production and 0.2% of world production.
Scottish product mostly went to the rest of the UK and was mostly sold through supermarkets.
“We may have the highest beef price in the world at the moment but that brings risks as well as rewards,” Mr McLaren said.
“We have to compete with Ireland and it is a green country too.”
Scotland, however, had huge advantages.
Extensively grazed cattle and sheep were very good convertors of feeds, such as hill grass, that were non-edible for humans.
This compared very well with countries where animals were fed almost exclusively on a diet of cereals.
He added: “ We also have water so much of it that it seems to be running out of the leg of your breeks every day.
“But it is a great asset in a world where it is often in short supply.”
“There is a warning, however, regarding climate.
“Reduction of livestock numbers must not be used as a way for farmers to meet Scotland’s greenhouse gas targets.
“These have to be calculated to accommodate an increasing number of stock.”
Mr McLaren, had been much enthused by a recent trade mission to Japan and China.
The Japanese spend 20% of their income on food compared to 11% in the UK.
Their’s was a discerning market well able and willing to pay for quality meat.
“The Chinese market is huge too but the opportunities are different,” he said.
“Customers mostly want a guarantee in the first instance that the food is not Chinese.
“The market is already massive with China importing around 475 thousand tonnes of beef.
“Russia beats that importing over one million tonnes.”
Ian Watson, chairman of lamb and beef procurement co-operative Farm Stock (Scotland) Ltd in Galashiels, agreed about the huge potential stressing that volume was essential to keeping costs down and citing the grain trade as an example of co-ops and merchants using scale to drive efficiency.
He criticised the “adversarial trading model” which operated in Scotland where the supply chain was pushed by production rather than pulled by demand.
This led to peaks and troughs in abattoir throughput and reduced margins.
The present situation where 80% of the suckler herd was now spring calving was making the position worse.
“The need for an improved and better integrated supply chain needs to be addressed and I think co-ops can help deliver greater efficiency,” he said.