A new push to promote prime Scotch beef in European markets was announced in Paris yesterday by Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead.
Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) has been given £170,000 to re-launch the product in France, Belgium and the Netherlands following last year's ban on exports in the wake of the outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease in England.
The grant was one of several totalling £4m announced yesterday as part of the National Food Processing, Marketing and Co-operation Scheme, which in turn is part of the Scotland Rural Development Programme. An initial £6m was awarded in June and a total of £60m will be awarded over five years.
Other grants included £2.26m to Angus Cereals for constructing Scotland's first combined cereal crop processing centre, and £1m to the Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society to support greater collaboration within Scottish food and drink supply chains.
Speaking at SIAL, the international food show in Paris, where QMS is promoting Scottish red meat, Lochhead said: "Scotland's food and drink industry is worth around £7.5bn to the Scottish economy and employs around 350,000 people. Food and drink accounted for over a quarter of Scotland's manufacturing exports in 2007. We must do all we can to cont- inue to support this vital industry, particularly in the current economic climate."
QMS chief executive 'Uel Morton said: "This is excellent news and means we are able to continue our work on the ground in Europe helping Scottish red meat companies rebuild the export trade for Scotch beef in our target countries of France, Italy and Benelux.
"Despite a pick-up in lamb exports, sales of beef to the continent remain down and have yet to recover from the trading ban imposed during the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak last year."
QMS chairman Donald Biggar said: "While Europe is always likely to be our key market for exports there are some major untapped markets around the world that Scottish red meat companies could be targeting for business.
"Our analysis shows the UK is currently sitting second bottom of a table of European countries that are exporting beef outside of the EU, selling 47 tonnes annually compared to Germany at the top of the table exporting over 15,000 tonnes."
The Scottish red meat industry is hampered by the fact that exports of meat from the EU can take place only if a licence has been granted by the destination country.
Scotland remains unable to export beef, lamb and pork to key global markets because many countries will not issue licences to the UK in the wake of the BSE epidemic and last year's outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.
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