Last week I had the great privilege of sharing the stage with Sybil MacPherson, the outgoing chair of the National Sheep Association Scotland (NSA) and the star, alongside her husband George, of the BBC’s This Farming Life.
Sybil spoke about her life farming in the hills and her work with the NSA. It was amazing to hear how This Farming Life had made such an impression on viewers that some had been so moved, they wrote to Sybil and George.
For once I was early and I had time to watch some of the fat lamb sale before the meal. Although I follow the sale and deadweight reports, nothing quite focuses your mind like watching it live. Going by my calculations, the trade for that week was £7.50/head less across all Scottish live and deadweight centres compared to the same week the previous year.
After watching the struggle to get fat lambs away, I was pretty shocked to find mainly New Zealand lamb in my local Tesco store the following weekend. I spoke to the lady in charge of the store without trying to sound like a whinging farmer. She was very understanding when I said I was going across town to support the local Lidl store which only stocked Scotch Lamb.
We all have the power of our pound and we should exercise how we spend it very carefully.
I posted pictures of the encounter on my Facebook page along with a plea to Tesco UK’s timeline, asking for their support of our sheep industry. The response to these posts was massive. I have been overwhelmed, with over 700 shares and 2500 interactions to both posts. This reinforces my belief that people do care about where and how their food is produced.
The supermarkets must do the right thing and pass the reduced costs of UK lamb direct to their customers. Clear labelling is essential for shoppers to make informed choices. Its currently like a lucky dip in our local Tesco with British and NZ lamb mixed together on their shelves.
We desperately need some joined up thinking for our sheep industry with the triggering of Article 50 and Indy 2 on the horizon. I am tired of hearing about industry reviews and consultation documents. Instead of the usual lip service being paid – lets get some positive action.
The customer is king. We need to remember the importance of consumers and not just think the job is done when lambs leave our farms.
We need lamb back in vogue. There are fresh, simple and exciting recipes out there utilising cheaper cuts as well chops and legs. Let’s all push to get more of these recipe ideas beside every supermarket chill, and on every butcher’s counter in the country as a way of promoting what’s an amazing product.
It’s not only production techniques we can adopt from NZ. If they can blast chill containers of lamb, ship them across the world, and then tell the end consumers that the six or seven weeks at sea has only improved the eating quality, I think its time we started employing their marketing gurus.
