Morrisons signs deal to get home-bred lamb in stores

Up TO 1,500 Suffolk lambs per week will be bought by supermarket giant Morrisons in the latest of its deals to put branded traditional breeds of meat on its shelves.

The deal – announced on the eve of the Scotsheep event, which is being held today at Morrisons farm, Dumfries House – follows similar agreements it made for Shorthorn bred beef and Berkshire-bred pigmeat.

The deal will also see a pricing mechanism put in place which should reward producers supplying the lamb. Since its introduction last autumn, about 400 beef producers in the UK who are supplying Shorthorn beef are currently getting 20p per kilo above the market rate.

Commenting on the Suffolk lamb deal, which starts this autumn, Andrew Loftus, Morrisons’ farm operations manager, said the company had been working with Suffolk sires on their own farm for three years now and the breed was an obvious choice.

“The extra confidence we hope this product gives to our farmers will be very welcome. It will also add another superb product to our butcher’s counter and we’re confident our customers will love it.”

Dr Lewis McClinton, chief executive of the Suffolk Sheep Society, who will control the scheme, said he was delighted the supermarket had committed to include Suffolk lamb in their Traditional Range.

The Morrison announcement came on the same day that NFU Scotland gave the retailer top marks for it support of the home lamb trade.

NFUS president Nigel Miller played “secret shopper” to check the source of lamb in six supermarket chains to gauge the current levels of support for Scottish, British and imported lamb.

His findings – albeit from a small-scale sample – showed Morrisons had total commitment to British lamb. The next best of the majors was Sainsburys, which also showed an “encouraging” amount of Scotch lamb on its shelves.

In other retailers visited, Scotch lamb was available on the butchery counters but no Scotch lamb was clearly identified in the meat aisles, and while British lamb was for sale, imported lamb from New Zealand and Australia still made up the bulk of lamb packs on the shelves.

NFUS is now calling on all major supermarkets to up their support for Scotch lamb in the coming months and use this season’s starting price levels to reposition lamb in the consumer’s shopping basket.

Miller said: “This year’s lamb market has opened up with a substantial readjustment in prices and that has left many producers feeling jittery.

“With the lamb markets re-balancing from the highs of recent years, and euro uncertainty affecting export opportunities, a higher level of commitment from supermarkets to home-produced product early in the season has the potential to generate the confidence and stability needed on farm.”