CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS MEAT MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES FOR CROFTERS

A conference entitled ‘Marketing Meat from the Croft’ organised by the Scottish Crofting Federation (SCF) took place last week in Inverness. The purpose of the event was to bring together crofters and crofting producer groups with some of Scotland’s top meat industry experts, highlighting the opportunities and constraints in marketing beef, lamb and pork from the croft. Conference organiser Donald Murdie, Co-ordinator of SCF’s Crofting Resources Programme, said, “The great majority of output from crofts is store livestock which is sold on to lowland farmers for finishing, but the direct selling route is a way that individual crofters and producer groups can add value to their produce, especially for breeders of traditional and native breeds which are slow to grow to maturity. SCF’s ‘Scottish Crofting Produce’ trade mark is available as an additional marketing tool.”