A LICENSE to sell Orkney goose meat Scotland-wide has arrived five years too late – according to Orcadian farmers who continue to be plagued by the island’s greylag geese population

Controlled culls have stabilised goose numbers, but farmers think they are still too high. This summer saw a trial launched by Scottish Natural Heritage to allow goose meat to be sold off Orkney for the first time. Two retailers on Orkney are selling goose meat, Raymond Shearer, of William Shearer, of Kirkwall, and Thorfinn Craigie, of Craigie Butchers.

Mr Shearer said: “We would like to have more of an open market for the meat but it has never been promoted well and this is the first year we have been able to sell it to make any profit and there is a long way to go till we begin to experience results.”

Mr Shearer also runs ‘Orkney Island Goose Shooting’ taking parties out during the controlled culling period between September the first and the end of January: “We are certainly seeing geese shooting growing in popularity, we are almost fully booked throughout the season with interest from people worldwide.

“Goose culls aren’t having a huge impact but with a stronger marketing strategy we could sell more meat off Orkney and hopefully see a decline in numbers.”

Mr Craigie commented: “We were the first butchers in the UK to sell greylag geese, which sparked strong demand from restaurants in London and Edinburgh, but that was when we first began the culls years ago, so this recent move is five-years too late.”

At the start of the year, SNH and RSPB received a £6m grant to implement a stoat eradication programme on the island, which required some farmers to set traps in their fields. A lot of them refused to grant access to their land until the pressing issue of the geese was taken more seriously, prompting the license to begin off-island sales in August.

Mr Craigie continued: “We had the head of SNH come to Orkney to see the damage for themselves which I think was a real eye opener and helped them understand what the farmers are up against. I’ve seen 30-acre fields cleared by the geese, costing thousands of pounds and a neighbour of mine had their entire barley crop wrecked at the start of spring.”

Mr Craigie is one of the cull team leaders on the island and reckons that there are about 27,000 geese on Orkney, with the numbers remaining steady since the cull.

His shop doesn’t sell a huge amount of goose meat, as so many people shoot them on the island: “There isn’t much money for us in selling goose meat, so we are mainly doing it to support local farmers.

“There is a huge amount of money which has been invested in the stoat eradication side of things, which if directed to promoting goose meat off Orkney could make a big difference to tackling geese numbers here.”