There has been many discussions regarding the Brexit and the sheep sector in Scotland, as we are reliant on the EU market and rest of the UK for a significant proportion of our lambs and ewes. In his December Farm North East Article, Steven Thomson, Senior Agricultural Economist and Policy Advisor at SRUC, details the headline findings from the Scottish Government commissioned research, investigating the opportunities and challenges industry faces in retaining and increasing sheep and lamb processing in Scotland. The motivation for the project, which was completed by Kev Bevan, Steven Thomson and Cesar Revoredo of SRUC and Andrew Moxey of Pareto Consulting, was that, continuing a long-term trend, the majority of Scottish-born sheep going to slaughter in 2018 did so outwith Scotland: only 42% of Scottish-born lambs, and almost no ewes or rams, were processed in Scotland.

To read and download the full article please follow the link below. For any comments, questions or queries please visit our contact pages, or email Steven directly on steven.thomson@sruc.ac.uk.

Sheep processing, consumption and markets – Farm North East December 2019

To  full Scottish Government Commissioned Report Sheep and lamb processing: assessment can be viewed and downloaded here .