ShelfWatch survey reveals amount of Scottish produce in supermarkets
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Scotland's farming union has revealed statistics showing which supermarkets are stocking the most – and least – amount of Scottish produce.
NFU Scotland says the findings from its latest ShelfWatch survey give a clearer picture of where consumers are able to purchase home-produced goods.
Over a 48-hour period in late January, an independent research firm visited 71 stores across mainland Scotland.
Researchers looked at beef, lamb, pork, chicken, eggs, vegetables and dairy products on offer in Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Co-op, Marks and Spencer, Lidl and Aldi stores.
They reviewed the country of origin of products being offered by the stores’ own brands to identify if they were Scottish, British or imported.
All retailers involved in the survey were notified in advance and invited to join a panel session at the union's annual general meeting to discuss the results.
Aldi had the largest percentage of Scottish produce overall, at 48.7 per cent.
Sainsbury’s had the lowest at 7.6 per cent.
Three retailers, Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury's, had less than 10 per cent Scottish products overall.
The largest percentage of "other" produce was UK.
Aldi had the largest percentage of pork, bacon and sausages labelled as Scottish.
Aldi, Lidl and Morrisons had more than 70 per cent of Scottish beef.
Lidl had the largest percentage (100 per cent) Scottish lamb, followed by M&S with 83.6 per cent.
Aldi had the largest percentage (100 per cent) of Scottish eggs, while Lidl had 96.4 per cent.
Aldi also had the largest percentage (100 per cent) of Scottish potatoes, while Tesco was the lowest with 6.4 per cent.
The largest percentage of Scottish vegetables (61.8) was also found at Aldi, while the Co-op was lowest at 4.8.
M&S had the most Scottish milk (62.4 per cent) and Tesco had the lowest (30.7).
NFU Scotland chief executive John Davidson said: “The results from the ShelfWatch survey unveil a completely mixed bag of what is going on in shops across the country and available to Scotland’s consumers.
"While it is encouraging to see that there is strong support for Scottish and UK produce in general and examples of some retailers stocking 100 per cent Scottish, others appear to have absolutely none on their shelves in some sectors.
“Clearly more can be done to ensure consumers are able to source more locally produce. This also begs some questions on labelling and marketing and whether consumers have full transparency of the origin.
“These results provide us with a fantastic opportunity to not only hold retailers to account and accurately highlight to our consumers what’s going on in some shops, but also enables us to give credit to those who are tremendous supporters of local food production within Scotland.
“Nobody wants to rely on cheaper imports, exacerbating a deepening food security crisis. Our farmers and crofters can deliver on so many levels, given the right conditions, to support and help deliver a thriving economy.
“We will also use these positive results to inform discussions we have with those retailers who have been identified as having zero or low levels of Scottish produce available, to better understand any sourcing challenges they have and look to resolve these."
