Phase 2 of NFU Scotland’s ShelfWatch initiative, which scrutinises the availability of Scottish produce in Scottish supermarket stores has continued to find a mixed picture of support across retailers.

In Phase 2, over a 48-hour period in late May, an independent research firm visited 73 stores across mainland Scotland. Researchers looked primarily at own-brand beef, lamb, pork, chicken, eggs, vegetables, soft fruit and dairy products (milk, cheese, butter and yoghurt) on offer in Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Co-Op, Marks and Spencer, Lidl and Aldi stores. In total, more than 15,000 individual products were audited. A summary of the report, including individual sectors is attached.

When compared with ShelfWatch launch in January, ShelfWatch Phase 2 identified that retailer Aldi remains the strongest supporter of Scottish goods available to Scottish consumers (45 percent).

READ MORE | Phase two of ShelfWatch starts in major supermarkets

In summary, the results from ShelfWatch 2 are:

  • In total, across all retailers, there has been only a modest increase in the availability of Scottish own label produce from January.
  • In terms of support for Scottish produce, Aldi leads the way for a second time with 45 per cent Scottish and were top in 12 of 15 categories.
  • Co-op improved from fourth to second (27.6%). Lidl (27%) fell from second to third and Morrisons fell from third to fourth (19.2%).
  • At the other end of the table, Sainsburys remains the lowest supporter of Scottish own label produce (9.7%). Tesco improve from seventh to sixth (13.1%), Asda falls from sixth to seventh (11.5%) and Marks and Spencer remains fifth (18.7%).
  • There is strong support for Scottish from the retailers in categories such as eggs and fresh milk. However, there are opportunities for some retailers to do more in categories such as pork, lamb and chicken, and for all across the wider dairy sector.
  • In terms of retailers’ commitment to British produce, Marks and Spencer came out on top with 85% of products labelled as British or Scottish.
  • Soft fruit, now in season, was included in ShelfWatch 2.
  • On labelling, our assessors picked up on some unclear labelling on bacon involving the mixing of UK and EU produce which we will take up with the retailers.

NFUS president Martin Kennedy said: “On behalf of farmers and crofters, NFU Scotland is continuing with its ShelfWatch project, shining a light on where and how Scottish produce is being made available to consumers. We want to support our farmers and crofters, to ensure that there is recognition and reward for the outstanding food that they work so hard to produce.

“The first ShelfWatch project in January gave us a useful baseline. It allowed us to understand the differences between product types, where Scottish produce is to the fore and where there is dominance from produce from elsewhere.

“The second of four ShelfWatch surveys to be carried out within the 12 month period has found only a modest increase in the availability of Scottish branded products. This now gives us a solid platform for more detailed discussions with retailers and policy makers which we will now embark in order to try and affect positive change.

“Part of that dialogue will be on fair and transparent labelling. The ability for a staple product like bacon to carry ambiguous and confusing labelling on whether it is of UK or EU origin underlines our previous calls for labelling reform at a UK Government level."