Kick in the chops for Scottish sheep farmers
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
SCOTTISH sheep farmers say they are disappointed at the lack of support supermarkets are giving to home-grown lamb this Easter.
The National Farmers’ Union Scotland’s secret shoppers have found almost all supermarkets are giving people little choice to buy Scottish lamb - with the exception of Aldi.
The shelfwatch results show that, despite previous commitments by some supermarkets, Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s, the Co-op, Morrisons, Marks and Spencer and Lidl have all chosen to import huge volumes of New Zealand and Australian lamb, shunning home producers.
Today’s results show a marked decrease from the results in previous years, leading farmers to question the long-term commitment of supermarkets supporting Scottish sheep producers.
In one Tesco store, underneath a banner proclaiming "The Best Scottish Lamb in Season", a secret shopper found 100 packs of New Zealand lamb.
Despite their previous vocal support for Scottish and British lamb, Morrisons and Lidl both were found to be stocking large amounts of imported lamb.
Last year, Marks and Spencer’s made a commitment to source 100 per cent Scottish lamb for its Scottish stores this season. But this has not been followed through, as some secret shoppers found the retailer had almost 50 per cent of imported lamb on its shelves.
NFU Scotland has already contacted the retailer questioning why this commitment has not stood.
NFU Scotland president Andrew McCornick said: "Scottish farmers are coming through the difficult spring lambing period, and continue to be hard at work caring for new-born lambs.
"It’s frankly a slap in the face to many of us that supermarkets have failed to show strong support to Scotland’s sheep farmers and their families over the Easter period – a time of year when consumers seek out our high-quality produce.
"We continue to urge Tesco and Asda to extend their season for buying home produced lamb in a bid to boost sales of Scottish. And we will be asking questions of Morrisons, Marks and Spencer and Lidl, who have failed to maintain their previous good record on domestic sourcing this year. Those commitments have been lauded and appreciated by NFUS and Scottish farmers in the past.
"Aldi must be commended for being the sole retailer found to be selling exclusively Scottish and UK lamb over the Easter period, meaning that it is the only place that shoppers are guaranteed to be able to buy Scottish ahead of the Easter weekend.
"We also continue to be reassured by the commitment from the Co-op that it plans to move to 100 per cent home-produced across all fresh meat later this year, and we look forward to seeing this driving success for Scottish farmers."
An M&S spokeswoman said: “We are fully committed to sourcing 100 per cent Scottish lamb for our Scottish customers to enjoy
" Unfortunately we’ve had a recent system error which has meant that some of our Scottish lamb has been delivered to stores south of the border and some New Zealand lamb has come into Scotland.
"We can only apologise as this shouldn't have happened. We have immediately rectified the problem so will be back to selling only Scottish lamb in Scottish stores later this weekend.”
A spokeswoman for Sainsbury's said: "Our pre-packed range is 100 per cent British during the main season, and our meat counter lamb and Taste the Difference and Organic ranges are British all year round. Each season is different and we adjust our sourcing accordingly. For example, by working with our farmers we were able to increase production of British lamb compared to last year, particularly in the traditional off-season between January and June.
"We work very closely with our sheep farmers to source British lamb when it’s available, and our partnership approach means we can forecast our British range better, and as a result give the best availability, quality and value for our customers."
