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Beef + Lamb NZ chairman James Parsons.
Marks & Spencer says it will no longer stock New Zealand lamb in its Scottish stores and will sell only locally produced lamb.
Beef + Lamb NZ chairman James Parsons, who was in Britain, France, Ireland and Belgium last week to assess what impact Brexit may have on NZ meat exports, was present for the Marks & Spencer announcement. He says Scottish farmers have pushed the supermarket for some time to support local produce.
“From our perspective it’s disappointing – not just from a parochial perspective either,” Parsons says. “In my view, this is actually bad for the lamb category because currently we have NZ lamb basically going up to the UK in their off season when they don’t produce product.”
He added that for the Scots to supply for 12 months of the year a lot of old-season lamb will have to be used to maintain year-round supply.
“I don’t think that’s a great experience for the consumers.”
Parsons says Marks & Spencer imported only small volumes from NZ – around 29,000 lambs annually.
“To put it in context, we’re talking about 10 or 12 NZ farms and of that, only about half of the carcase; they don’t use the whole carcase at Marks & Spencer stores.”
He believes other supermarkets will pick up the market share and business if consumers do not get what they want from Marks & Spencer.
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