Andrew Arbuckle: Anuga offers much food for thought

IT HAPPENED a long time ago, but I still remember the feeling I had after selling a wagon-load of Majestic seed potatoes.

As was the custom in those days, the potato merchant had called in on a route that took him round his customers. My father was not at home and I thought the offer of £23 per ton for ten tons –as they were in those days – was a fair price.

Imparting the news that night, dad informed me I was £5 a ton off the pace. There had been a lift in the trade for Majestics. He asked if I had agreed the deal and when I answered in the affirmative, he said: “Well that is that then.” And the potatoes were duly delivered.

Ever since that day, whenever I sell anything, I have this doubt. Too much? Too little? Was the handshake too quick and eager on the other side? Sometimes I get it right, mostly I do not.

I am unlike a certain well-known Perthshire farmer who sells all his crops at the top of the market. As the locals remark, the eggs his hens lay are all double-yokers. I believe he has relations or others of his ilk in all parts of the country.

There is no doubt that selling is a skill not given to all and so I marvelled this past week at the various salesmen of the big Scottish red meat exporting companies went about their business at the Anuga food fair in Cologne.

There was a buzz in the air. There is no doubt there is an increasing demand for beef and lamb and new faces kept coming on to the Quality Meat Scotland stand that provides the umbrella base for the selling operation.

As one trader remarked, all the new faces are welcome but in the financial turmoil going on in the world, stringent credit checks are essential.

In looking to open new markets, it is no wonder that one of the factors that influenced QMS to target Germany and the Scandinavian countries is rule one in selling: follow the money. When told that Bord Bia, the Irish export body, had that day announced that it was aiming to double its exports to Germany, one QMS staffer commented that it confirmed its strategy.

Looking into the longer term, QMS has eyes on the Canadian and Russian markets. In the latter, there may be many poor people, but there is a small percentage of very, very rich and they are the targeted market. Canada, meanwhile, has a stable economy and in 2011 not many countries can make that claim.

The QMS stand is but a small island in a sea of other meat traders at the fair. There are some 650 exhibitors in the meat halls and they range from the big international companies such as ABP, Vestey and Vion, to the smaller ones such as the Falkland Island Lamb Export company and a firm from Mumbai that specialises in halal water buffalo meat.

The buzz on the Scottish stand was echoed all around the halls as traders discussed prices for strip loins, steaks, hams, gigots, tendons, ducks’ feet, pigs’ tails and every other animal part considered fit for human consumption.

And the selling buzz was picked up by UK farm minister Jim Paice, on his first ever visit to the fair. It provided this MP from a rural constituency in England an ideal platform to beat the Westminster government drum on reducing farm subsidies and getting more from the market.

And yet within 24 hours any focus politicians in the European agricultural world had on food production and sales swung towards Brussels, with the official publication of the commission’s proposals on the common agricultural policy.

There may be claims that this version of the CAP will be simpler but, frankly, I just do not believe it. Some parts will help such as the giving small-scale farmers a set sum of cash without a great deal of paperwork. But many other parts can do nothing other than complicate an already complex set of policies.

Remember, the process still has to go out to all member states and each will have their own take on it before returning it with their preferences.

Anyone who doubts my interpretation of the proposals would only have had to listen to the commissioner’s press spokesman fielding questions from all parts of the European Union. Everything from what happens to the olive oil acreage in Italy to the future rights of countries such as Turkey coming into the EU and many in between were answered

There are I believe only 114 miles between where the food fair was held in Cologne and Brussels. They are, however, a million miles apart in policy. Farming does not benefit from complex schemes where the winners are those who work the system, with all-too little thought of the food produced.