How Scotland puts lamb on French menus
How Scotland puts lamb on French menus
MARKETING Scotch quality lamb to the French is just one of the tasks taken on by Quality Meat Scotland in its first year in business.
The organisation was established to take over the quality assurance and red meat marketing previously handled in Scotland by the MLC, Scotch Quality Beef and Lamb Association, and the Scottish Pig Industry Initiative.
The Fleur dEcosse campaign, which is used to promote Scottish lamb in French butchers shops, began about 18 months ago.
"Even though the French do prefer their own home-produced lamb, research shows that there is a very positive attitude of Scotland as a whole, and as a good source of food," says Margaret Mitchell, lamb marketing manager with QMS. "Scotland is also viewed as a natural source of lamb production."
QMS worked with 12 butchers in the Marseille area, where the "Scotch box" was used – a box full of tartan point-of-sale promotional materials such as posters, rosettes and stickers.
A positive reaction from consumers means the promotion will now be extended to other areas of France. "QMS plans to look at any opportunities to brand Scotch lamb. We want to work with exporters and importers to develop relationships that can move at least some of our lamb out of the commodity market," says Ms Mitchell.
On the domestic market, QMS chief executive Alasdair Muir says the big push this year will be to build the brand Specially Selected Scotch which is used to promote beef, lamb and pork.
"The market research that we did across Britain, but especially in the big markets of the south-east of England, showed that Specially Selected Scotch was extremely well received."
Although the labels have been used for some years, Mr Muir believes much more can be done. "At the moment, when consumers think of Scotch meat they tend to think of beef. We are developing plans where we can use beefs strong quality image to develop sales of lamb and pork alongside," he says.