Holyrood money to restore confidence in Scots meat

By JULIA HORTON
Published on 12/02/2013 16:44

A MILLION POUND campaign to help restore public confidence in Scottish beef, lamb and pork as the horsemeat scandal continues was launched by the Scottish Government today.

The money will be invested in promoting the Scotch brand and supporting and developing new markets at home and abroad for Scottish products.

It will also fund a study across the meat sector to assess the market and determine what is currently on sale and which retailers provide the best support for producers.

Announcing the fund, food standards minister Richard Lochhead echoed calls from the industry for the negative impact of the ongoing crisis surrounding European imports to be turned into an opportunity to promote Scottish premium products.

He said: “Scotch is a world renowned brand and products with that label are among the best quality that can be found anywhere. Consumers have confidence in the brand and it is important that in the current climate, when people are looking very carefully at the provenance of their food, that we continue to build our good reputation both at home and overseas and continue to capitalise on new market opportunities.”

Ministers were already planning to announce extra financial support for the industry before the current crisis over horsemeat broke. In the wake of the growing concerns about the safety, labelling and quality of meat products they increased funding to £1m and commissioned new research into sales and support.