The Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers (SAMW) has requested transparency regarding meat industry charge rates and postponement of their implementation.
SAMW has expressed its concerns over the increased Food Standards Scotland (FSS) meat industry charge rates for the 2024/25 year, as the Official Veterinarian (OV) rate increases by 20% and the Meat Hygiene Inspector (MHI) experiences a 17% hike.
In a recent dialogue with Jenni Minto, Scottish Minister for Public Health, SAMW outlined three requests:
- Comprehensive transparency regarding the costs associated with the charge rates for 2024/25
- Consideration for augmenting the Ministerial discount for 2024/25 to counteract FSS cost escalations
- Postponement of the implementation of the news charge rates until resolutions are reached on points one and two.
SAMW said that while FSS had "furnished" it with a more detailed breakdown of the costs comprising the 2024/25 charge rates, "the unresolved issue of the Ministerial discount persists".
It also highlighted that a "significant portion" of the rise in this year's charge rates could be attributed to Scottish Government policies, including the forthcoming implementation of the 35-hour workweek from 1st October 2024. SAMW also said it was important to recognise that these factors, such as the pay award increases spanning from 2023 to 2025, are beyond the control of the industry.
SAMW stated that as the workweek hours and the pay awards do not mirror the commercial realities within meat plants, it becomes "imperative to seek additional support" through this year's Ministerial discount funding.
In the face of "escalating costs", it said, SAMW customers expect the trade body to explore every avenue to mitigate these increases through cost-saving measures. It said it maintains that "any cost escalations in FSS charge rates should be met with corresponding efforts to offset them".
The association reported its "firm conviction that the burden of increased costs for official controls should not unilaterally fall upon the industry without exhaustive exploration of all operational adjustments to mitigate these escalations", with many plants potentially choosing not to pay the increase when faced with invoices calculated at the new charge rates.
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
