BRITAIN'S leading chefs and catering executives have been seeing for themselves at grassroots the prime quality of Borders beef at Buccleuch Scotch Beef, a new wholly-owned company within the Buccleuch Estates.
The company, formed three months ago, has made an early impact. Its beef was served to President Chirac of France at Buckingham Palace during his visit last month.
The group toured Faughill Farm below the Eildon Hills near Melrose in the Borders.
Buccleuch Estates chief executive Michael Clarke said: ``All the beef comes from farms in the Buccleuch Farmers' Co-operative and is produced to meet the needs of people like our visitors who are after large Scotch beef steaks. The steers are from continental bulls on Angus cross and Hereford cross cows.
``At the moment around 30 steers a week are going through the scheme and we expect that to rise to around 100.''
All the steers go through Duff's abbatoir at Wishaw, which was the first port of call for the Buccleuch visitors.
``The beef is hung longer than normal so there is about five weeks between the time the steer is killed to the time the steaks arrive on the diners' plates.'' said Michael Clarke.
Buccleuch beef is already being served up at the House of Commons, Maxims and the Mansion House in London. Among the visitors to the Borders were David Dorricott, executive chef at the Commons, and Andrew Love, managing director of Maxims.
A measure of the direction of the Buccleuch targeting is provided by some of the other names on the guest list. They included Michael Gray, general manager of the Hyatt Carlton Tower, Paul Wilson, executive chef of Quaglinos, Frank Rowell, purchasing manager of the Conran Group, and Alex Sanderson of P&O.
All the beef is fed exclusively on grass or grass derived products, plus a little home-grown barley and Buccleuch Scotch beef sees itself as ideally poised for exports when the current world ban eases.
``The BSE crisis burst upon us at an early stage and some of the beef on show today would have been going to Italy,'' said Michael Clarke. ``We see enormous potential in the export market when it returns. The crisis has been a major problem but we see it as something to be overcome.''
Early feedback on quality is good. Andrew Love of Maxims said: ``Our customers appreciate the Buccleuch beef and as many of them are from overseas they have been sensitive to the BSE situation. There has been a gradual process of re-education but I believe it is increasingly successful.''
After touring Faughill and Hassendean Farm, near Lilliesleaf, the party visited Bowhill House, near Selkirk, home of the Duke of Buccleuch. The Duke's eldest son, the Marquis of Dalkeith, accompanied the guests on their farm tour on Wednesday night and the party dined at the Peebles Hydro where the main course, piped in in style was - not surprisingly - Buccleuch beef.
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