Making Scotland the culinary destination from farm to foodies

Firstly, as some readers may have seen I have announced that I shall be stepping back from the day to day running of AIMS. This isn’t a retirement though. I will, for the foreseeable future, still be always available for members, Government, and regulators as well, as hopefully having a little more time to spend playing golf.

I will still be keeping a close eye on all thing’s livestock, and, if Scottish Farmer will have me, continue writing this column. I will, as ever, remain as the critical friend of QMS.

Which brings me to the other two subjects. These can be loosely titled opportunities and threats.

According to Scotland’s Nature Agency, Nature Scot, tourism is one of seven growth industries in Scotland, contributing more than £4bn to the economy each year.

Figures from Visit Scotland’s 2023 visitor survey have found that almost half of visitors participated in at least one food and drink experience whilst on their trip, rising to 62% for long haul visitors.

Visiting a farm shop or farmers market was also mentioned by over one in five visitors.

Whilst I accept that many of those trips will be to distilleries undoubtedly the natural environment and in particular Scotland’s scenery, landscapes and history will also provide other reasons for people to visit.

Returning to Nature Scot’s figures 'spending on nature-based tourism is estimated to contribute nearly 40% of all tourism spend supporting 39,000 full time equivalent jobs'.

With Visit Scotland’s Scottish Agritourism Sector Group wanting to bring thousands of people on to Scottish farms each year, building demand for Scottish farm produce.

Thus, making Scotland the go-to place to buy farm food and drink, and to enjoy great food.

This is all hugely positive and whether the tourists are from the rest of the British Isles, the EU or from further afield Scotch Beef and Scotch Lamb must be made central to the tourism food experience.

Your farms, farm shops, stalls at farmer’s markets and the meat in butchers’ shops or on menus are the shop window to the world for Scottish livestock farming.

For this reason, I was delighted to read that QMS have relaunched the Scotch Beef club to help benefit Scottish foodservice outlets.

Tom Gibson, Director of Business Development at QMS, said: “The Scotch Beef Club [also] provides added value for these businesses, promoting their support for the Quality Assurance, provenance and traceability of our premium red meat.”

And with the post-pandemic return of tourist spend QMS have placed foodservice at the top of their business development agenda.

Looking at the Scotch Beef Club’s website it notes that it’s membership 'is aspirational but not elitist' and that 'Scotland’s Michelin-starred restaurants are members – but so too are smaller restaurants, committed to local sourcing and serving well-prepared fresh food for all occasions'.

At present, 31 foodservice outlets are listed as members and I’d like to see more, not just in Scotland, but across the UK and in overseas outlets.

But with all this opportunity there is inevitably threat and this is something that, I am sorry to say, is beyond the control of Scotland’s farmers and Holyrood sitting firmly south of the border in Westminster.

Since the election the new Government has announced the established of a new Border Security Command who will be responsible for coordinating the activities of Immigration Enforcement, MI5, the Border Force, and the National Crime Agency to attempt to tackle smuggling gangs which facilitate illegal migrant crossings across the English Channel.

However, in my opinion, the bigger threat to the border runs 24/7 365 days of the year and that is our country’s biosecurity with the danger from animal disease imported to the UK both via the seaports / channel tunnel as well as in personal luggage through the airports.

Starting with the short straits. In the last ten months, significant quantities of illegal pork meat has been intercepted. This was country of origin unknown and packed in non-refrigerated bins. It was, I understand, destined for manufacturing into pork products for human consumption. Possibly also sold fraudulently as being British.

Had the pork been infected with African Swine Fever (ASF), a disease which is present on mainland Europe, which then entered the British pig herd, the consequences would be huge. There would be no movement of pigs off farm for 28 days which would cause a back up in the ‘pig pipeline’ of around 1 million head which would bring with it animal welfare issues, increased production costs and, possibly, loss of sales further along the supply chain. And worse, UK exports of pork and products, would be suspended.

Also, seized has been a quantity of lamb carcasses. These had been eviscerated and, judging by the pictures seen, semi-shorn. The meat was packed in black bin liners and wrapped in gaffer tape. Again, the country of origin was unknown and again the meat was not refrigerated, and no doubt was destined for human consumption.

No livestock farmer will ever forget the outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in 2001 which, at the time, cost the UK £8 billion which, today, allowing for inflation, would be just shy of £18 billion.

The valuable export markets built up by QMS for Scotch Beef would cease immediately.

The good work of Visit Scotland mentioned above would be lost as the countryside would be closed to tourism for fear of spreading the disease.

The £4 billion of economic benefit talked about by Nature Scot, again above, would disappear no doubt taking years to rebuild post the outbreak.

Of course, the impact of ASF and FMD wouldn’t just be confined to Scotland as it would also cover England and Wales.

No doubt the plant-based fanatics would use these outbreaks to spread falsehoods about livestock farming and the need for its production to cease.

The threat of FMD entering the UK via sheep isn’t just confined to illegal entry at the seaports.

Smokies, goat or more commonly, sheep smoked with a blow torch, is a culinary delicacy in West Africa and yet, are illegal to both import or to produce here in the UK. But that doesn’t stop them from entering the country, most commonly in luggage at airports from planes landing from the African sub-continent.

The demand from the West African diaspora is such that I have read of cases where otherwise law-abiding, God-fearing Christians, turn to a thriving black market that now exists in the UK just to satisfy their need for what is, ultimately, a part of their culture and diet.

Imagine the outcry if other cultural and religious diets couldn’t be observed here in the UK.

But Christians from Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal etc. who have settled here? Nope.

And yet it doesn’t have to be that way. Research undertaken some years ago by the University of Bristol suggested that Smokies could be safely manufactured in the UK in licensed premises. I understand that similar research by the FSA supported this while Welsh levy body Hybu Cig Cymru, estimated that legal Smokie production would add further vale to sheep carcasses thus improving farmer returns.

British Smokies, sold to UK consumers and, very possibly, finding export markets to the West African communities across the globe.

What’s more, for those Smokies currently being illegally produced in the UK, it is, highly likely, that the sheep used have either been smuggled in via Dover wrapped in bin bags and gaffa tape, or, more likely, have been produced from rustled livestock that will have been slaughtered illegally and with little or no regard for Animal Welfare.

The debate about Smokies has rumbled on for over 30 years. It has been covered in Scottish Farmer in the past in the article 'NSA lambasts FSA for wait on ‘Smoky’ sheep production', as well as in the national press.

However, now more than ever, it makes real sense to open the debate again.

A new Government which wants to protect our borders must now strengthen them against the threat of imported disease.

A Government that wishes to turbo charge the UK economy through exports is in fact threatening the rural and the tourist economies along with their associated supply chains by not putting protecting the country’s biosecurity.

They must immediately empower the intelligence led Border Security Command to tackle all illegal imports to the UK be they humans, drugs, cash, weapons and yes, pork and lamb.