United Kingdom-The Royal Cornwall Show.

UNITED KINGDOM-LOCAL MEAT FOR ROYAL SHOW.

The Royal Cornwall Show’s source-local policy has had a positive knock-on effect for both producers and consumers.

That is the view of one man who starts his planning for the show a month in advance.

Gary Dutton, an independent butcher in Wadebridge, provides products to many of the caterers working at the show.

And increasingly, they are specifying locally sourced quality meat, he says.

"The Royal Cornwall Show has put out the idea of using locally produced meat to caterers and in turn, the caterers are asking us to make sure it’s local," he explained. "Most of our product is local anyway, so it’s not difficult for us to do.

"If it doesn’t come from Cornwall, at worst it comes from Devon or Somerset."

Customers at his town-centre shop appreciate the quality of the meat on sale.

He added: "It’s not just me. Any local, independent butcher has the advantage over the supermarket because he can butcher the meat, keep it and hang it properly before it is sold. And that can make a serious difference to a piece of meat."

It was now widely accepted that specifying local produce – in business and when you are out shopping – was the way forward, added Mr Dutton.

"People do want to know about traceability and that the product is coming from a reliable source. They favour local produce simply because it is local."

As an independent butcher, Mr Dutton claims he is also more capable of responding to changing demand. Supermarkets, he said, planned what was going to be on their shelves months in advance.

"But weather and other influences do have an effect on what people buy and we are able to stock up on different products such as mince or joints, or steaks and burgers, depending on what our customers are looking for," he explained.

With the Royal Cornwall Show scheduled for early June, Mr Dutton is expecting to provide around 5,000 sausages and 5,000 burgers to caterers.

Organisers of one of the most popular exhibits says the Royal Cornwall Show is now overwhelmingly accepted as the primary showcase for Cornish produce, which is well respected for both its quality and diversity.

The Cornwall branch of the Women’s Farming Union says stand spaces for the Cornwall Food and Farming Pavilion, which it runs, have all been snapped up, despite the difficult times. Sixty Cornish food and drink producers will be represented in the pavilion, with eight producers exhibiting for the first time and several businesses returning after a year’s break.

In the year that it was announced that the Royal Show at Stoneleigh was closing after one final event, the Royal Cornwall Show appears to be trading very successfully, with an attendance of 129,000 over the three days last year.