Following the release of the Phase One ShelfWatch survey results, National Farmers' Union (NFU) Scotland announced that it has commenced with Phase Two.
The results from Phase Two will be reported in June following a survey of supermarket shelves across mainland Scotland. During Phase One, an independent research firm visited 71 stores across Scotland, looking at the origin labels of own-brand beef, lamb, pork, chicken, eggs, vegetables and dairy products.
Retailers surveyed included Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Co-op, Marks and Spencer, Lidl and Aldi stores, with over 15,000 products reviewed.
Since ShelfWatch Phase One results were reported, Asda attended NFU Scotland’s annual conference, and a further meeting will take place. NFU Scotland has also met with Aldi, Tesco and Sainsbury’s since Phase One and meetings with M&S and Morrisons are reportedly planned. Requests for meetings with other retailers, said NFU Scotland, have yet to receive a reply.
NFU Scotland chief executive John Davidson said: “We know that Scottish consumers want to support Scottish produce and our major retailers have a huge responsibility in delivering on that. Over the coming year, ShelfWatch will identify those retailers who are giving outstanding support to local food production in Scotland and those who must do better.
“The first results in February revealed a completely mixed bag of what is going on in shops across the country and available to Scotland’s consumers. While it was encouraging to see that there was strong support for Scottish and UK produce in general and examples of some retailers stocking 100% Scottish, others at that time had little or no Scottish produce amongst own-label goods on their shelves in some sectors.
“The results of Phase One, and what we discover during Phase Two, provide us with a fantastic opportunity to give credit to those who are tremendous supporters of local food production within Scotland. Similarly, we will also use these results to inform discussions with those retailers who have been identified as having zero or low levels of Scottish produce available, to better understand any sourcing challenges they have and look to resolve these.
“Our ambition is that, when we come to complete our final ShelfWatch at the end of this year, there has been a marked improvement in the availability of Scottish produce in Scottish stores, allowing our consumers to fully support the hard work of Scottish farmers and crofters.”
