NFU Scotland is to question Asda over its sourcing of lamb as a shelf watch finds the retailer stocking hundreds of packs of imported meat at a time when Scottish farmers are busy finishing their stock.
NFU Scotland members have been carrying out a shelf watch in over 50 Scottish supermarkets this week, to identify which retailers are doing their part to support Scottish sheep farmers during peak production season.
Secret shoppers counted over 2,500 packs of Scottish lamb, identifying which of the big supermarkets were sourcing the most Scottish and home-produced lamb.
The results demonstrate that almost 45 per cent of the lamb available was branded with the Scotch Lamb PGI, with an additional 44 per cent labelled as British or Welsh.
This comes a week after the announcement from Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, that the Scottish Government is to commit to spend an additional £200,000 on Scotch Lamb PGI promotion.
'Way off the mark'
The results notably demonstrate that the supermarket chain Asda continue to stock significant volumes (40 per cent) of imported lamb, where many of its competitors have chosen to source Scottish and British lamb exclusively.
NFU Scotland’s Livestock Committee Chairman, Charlie Adam said the results show that support for Scottish and UK lamb producers is strong from a number of retailers, providing confidence to the sector.
"Indeed, six out of the nine supermarket chains that we visited were stocking only lamb produced in Scotland or the UK," Mr Adam said.
“While the majority of the lamb was home-produced it was disappointing to see that Asda, The Co-operative and Waitrose had no lamb labelled as Scottish available. In particular Asda is way off the mark with competitors – stocking hundreds of packs of imported lamb at a time when Scottish lamb producers are busy finishing their stock. NFU Scotland will raise this issue directly with ASDA in the coming days.
“The majority of lamb in the Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Lidl and Aldi stores however was labelled as Scotch Lamb PGI, giving the sector reason to be encouraged despite the ongoing uncertainty over Brexit," Mr Adam added.
NFU Scotland is encouraging shoppers to support local farmers and the rural economy by also visiting local butchers.
