Quality Meat Scotland’s (QMS) annual survey of Scottish red meat exporters has revealed a 4.3 per cent increase in the total red meat exported from Scotland for the year ending September 2015 to approximately £76.6 million (excluding fifth quarter value).
Beef represented 55% of the total red meat exported from Scotland, with lamb accounting for 45%.
Speaking at Anuga in Cologne, Jim McLaren, chairman of QMS said it was vital that the Scottish industry continues to meet the demands of overseas markets for high quality produce. However, he also drew attention to the importance of export markets in terms of optimising returns for the entire carcase.
“While there is demand from overseas customers for the very top end of quality products from Scotland there is also encouraging volume demand from overseas markets for fifth quarter and lower value products. This is good news in terms of optimising returns for the whole carcase,” McLaren said.
QMS’s export strategy in recent years has focused on developing opportunities in Germany and the Nordics, along with the existing well-established target markets of France, Italy and the Benelux.
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.
