CLA and SRPBA join forces to condemn electronic sheep tagging

The CLA and the Scottish Rural Property and Business Association (SRPBA) have today (27 August) published a report condemning the proposed introduction of electronic sheep tagging as a costly exercise of no benefit to consumer or industry.

The report outlines both organisations' concerns about the proposed compulsory electronic identification (EID) scheme and reveals how it has the potential to cripple an already struggling sheep sector.

Douglas Chalmers, Director CLA North, said:

"This report emphatically underlines all the concerns we have been already hearing from our Members across the whole sheep industry, and the whole industry sees this as an expensive and bureaucratic scheme with no additional benefit for producers or consumers. The sheep industry in the North is already teetering on the edge of insolvency. The cost of implementing the proposed measure is significant, and would mean serious economic, environmental and social repercussions reaching far beyond agriculture.

SRPBA Chairman Luke Borwick said:

"This regulation will damage an industry which is already on its knees, without delivering any obvious welfare or efficiency gains. Moreover, since the regulation will only be enforced in nations with a national flock of over 600,000 sheep I fail to see how this will improve traceability across the whole EU. We need a sensible approach, and this is not the answer."

The report, put together by CLA and SRPBA advisers will be sent to all MPs, MSP's and MEP's with an interest in the rural economy in a bid to flag up the issue. The recommendation of both organisations is that the Commission should scrap the proposals altogether or, if it is considered vital to public health, to fund the scheme in its entirety.

The CLA says it will continue to collect the signatures of those opposed to the scheme via its petition at regional agricultural shows and also on the CLA website at www.cla.org.uk