New SBCA meets with Brussels

The first meeting of the new Scottish Beef Cattle Association will today (16 June) hear a report on a meeting between the Association and European agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel.

The open meeting, at Perth Agricultural Centre, will learn the outcome of discussions with the commissioner covering a range of issues of concern to Scottish beef producers.

Keith Redpath, a previous board member of the National Beef Association, attended the meeting on behalf of the SBCA and described the talks as “extremely useful”.

“We had a comprehensive debate about the implications for producers of the current unsustainable farm-gate prices and, in particular, we discussed the problems of inferior food imports and the disease risks they are posing on a daily basis,” he said.

The SBCA currently has more than 100 members and plans a recruitment drive once its new board is elected.