Meat
Scottish meat: bred to be better
Best known for its beef, Scotland also produces exceptional pork, poultry, venison and lamb. We have some of the highest-quality standards in the world, looked over by a close community of farmers who care passionately about every aspect of responsible animal welfare.
An extensive larder
The Scotch UKGI logo is marked for excellence, with the scheme guaranteeing meticulous care and husbandry meaning the highest quality beef. There is also Scotch Lamb UKGI, celebrating the same standards for our upland grazing across Scotland’s hills and glens to produce that distinctive scotch lamb flavour. Small and often cooperatively managed, Scotland’s pork producers aim for the Specially Selected Pork seal of quality.
And we can’t forget poultry, with Scotland supplying 850,000 birds a week to market. Ten years from now, that figure is estimated to more than triple, hitting roughly 2.7 million birds a month. High quality and food safety standards combine with short supply chains to make Scottish poultry a popular choice for buyers.
With 1 million wild deer and 146 deer holdings across Scotland, the love of this low-fat, high-protein and low carbon footprint meat is growing.
Grassland to suit all
More than two thirds of Scotland’s green spaces are grasslands, the majority of which aren’t suitable for cultivating crops, but are perfect for grazing sheep and cattle. Animal care begins from the ground up (literally) with Scotland’s lush green grass. Such conditions are ideal for more than 9,000 quality-assured cattle, sheep and pig farms. There are also many smaller holdings, ensuring diversity of livestock rearing and greater variety for customers.
A growing sector
Scotland’s red meat industry (beef, lamb and pork) generates a substantial £2.8 billion annually and supports 50,000 jobs across the farming, agricultural supply and processing sectors.
Scottish exports of meat and meat preparations have seen a year-on-year increase, totalling £128.1 million and 46,804 tonnes in 2022 – proving Scottish meat’s reputation for excellence extends far beyond the UK and EU. Just look at Scotland’s meat exports to non-EU countries in 2022, where Asia and Oceania together represented 65% of the total value.
Quality Assurance
Quality Meat Scotland is a non-departmental public body funded by levy that supports the whole of the red meat supply chain from end to end to ensure its integrity, credibility, quality, efficiency and sustainability. Crucially, it makes sure that the highest standards of animal welfare are met.
From farm to fork, Quality Meat Scotland's members are held to rigorous quality assurance standards that are independently assessed. Almost all prime cattle (97.2%) and prime sheep (91.4%) sold and processed in Scotland are farm assured.
Looking to a green horizon
Across Scotland, producers of every size are committed to using the landscape and its natural resources sustainably. They’re supported in this by schemes such as the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS), which helps reduce carbon emissions and promote environmentally responsible land use, as well as The Farm Advisory Service and Monitor Farms Scotland.
Such support is working. Scotland's agriculture sector reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 15% from 1990 to 2020. Coupled with ongoing efforts to combat climate change, this significant reduction positions Scottish meat as a sustainable and environmentally friendly choice for buyers globally – now, and in the future.
