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Stay True to Scotch Beef
As far as sales of red meats are concerned, 2009 will go down as a relatively successful year for farmers, and a challenging one for wholesalers and chefs. With the ongoing downward trend on cattle numbers, good quality livestock are becoming increasingly difficult to source and more expensive to buy. Margaret Stewart outlines the argument for buying Scotch Beef…
In 2008, the UK imported 250,000 tonnes of beef but nowadays these cheaper imports are now becoming much more expensive as the weakness of the sterling and declining cattle numbers in Ireland continues to affect adversely prices.
Similarly, the formerly plentiful supply from South America has dried up considerably. Argentina, once a major player in European markets, has deep-rooted internal financial problems and has virtually stopped exporting. Brazil, meanwhile, has health, welfare and environmental problems which have drastically cut their access to the European marketplace. That leaves Australia and the USA seeking to satisfy the demands of the UK foodservice sector. The good news is that an agreement recently reached in America could end the long-running transatlantic dispute over hormones in beef. If concluded, the agreement would bring about an end to the punitive US sanctions on certain EU food products including Roquefort cheese and Italian mineral water, just two of the products targeted over the past 20 years.
The draft agreement will still exclude hormone-treated beef but will increase the EU's tariff quota for non-hormone-treated and non-antimicrobial-treated beef. The latter is produced by beef specialists in the US, and will increase the existing 11,500 tonne quota by almost five fold. In 2008, the US was the eighth biggest supplier of beef into the EU; an additional 45,000 tonnes of US beef would expand the total EU % of imports by 24%.
It is against this background of increasing imports – not to mention food miles and the environment - that foodservice buyers must make their purchasing decisions.
The nature of Scotch beef production means that it has a much lower impact on the environment than beef produced under cereal-based feed-lot conditions. Moreover, the deep-rooted perennial grass pastures and trees found in Scotland are important contributors in the ongoing battle to offset the carbon emissions.
While it appears that beef will continue to be one of the most expensive items for most restaurants, it was nevertheless encouraging to hear respected chef Ralph Porciani's assertion that over 70% of the Turnberry's banqueting main courses still featured beef. This would appear to indicate that the consumers' love affair with steak for special occasions has not diminished.
Against the background of imports and the effect of meat production on the environment, there is a compelling argument to remain loyal to Scotch Beef. QMS has always been in favour of enforcing Country of Origin labelling - currently only implemented at retail level - into the catering sector, and as imports increase, this is now more relevant than ever. Indeed, nothing seems to have been done since the BBC exposed in 2008 a number of establishments which were selling foreign beef as 'British'.
The Scottish industry has tried hard to enhance its products; Scotch Beef has Protected Geographical Indication (PGI), and Orkney Beef is a Product of Designated Origin (PDO). Both of these accolades mean that higher quality standards and controls are maintained during a production cycle, which can only take place in a strictly defined geographical area.
As the boom time for meat sales approaches and prices are expected to remain high, buyers should make careful choices and look objectively at so-called 'offers'.
Perhaps now is the time to provide customers with more information on production methods and origin to help them decide which meat to choose and how much to spend. Maybe then the consumer would drive the initiative for tighter legislation to ensure they are not being conned.
This article has been edited from its original version. For the complete feature, please see Catering in Scotland magazine November/December 2009.
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