Brief Overview of Key Crop Supply Cains

Alan Renwick

Crops through the supply chain

• Key Crops in Scotland

– Wheat

– Barley

– Potatoes

– Soft Fruit

Crop Production – Areas of Key crops

Source June Census

Distribution of Barley Production and Malting Sites

Quantity and QualityLimited by climate and soil

Vast majority intoDistilling

Import most of ¼m tonnes for milling

Much Scope to change?

Importance of Whisky sector – impact of economic downturn

Destination of Wheat

Source: DTZ

Feed Use, Malting, Exporter of feed, limited scope for malt exportsimportance of livestock sector -

Source: DTZ

Source: DTZ

Destination of Barley

No crushing facilities within Scotland. All exported – discussion About local facilities but mainly to do with bio-diesel – food vs fuel

Source: DTZ

Destination of OSR

Growth in Demand (Malt)

20% of UK area, Approx 5 main packers in Scotland, 45% of area is seed – Scotland as Input provider,

Potatoes

Vegetables

Opportunities?

• Additional Slides highlight some notes from DTZ report on sectors

Vegetables

• One single pre-packer dominates the sector, but there are a limited number of other processing facilities. The sector is efficient and well integrated.

Potatoes

• There are five strong pre-packers in Scotland and fresh product is significant. However there is a lack of processing facilities making volume potato products, and this activity tends to be carried out in England. The investment needed to set up such facilities is considerable and unlikely to be viable in Scotland, unless on a small scale to niche markets.

Wheat

• The Scottish climate is not well suited to growing wheat, however new varieties are creating opportunities for Scottish growers. The return on wheat production is higher than other food crops, suggesting production will continue to grow. Around half of Scotland's wheat crop goes to distilleries. The remainder is milled in Scotland (with imported grain due to insufficient quality and supply). Poorer quality output is used in animal feed. Global warming may bring opportunities for more milling wheat to be grown in Scotland.

• Strawberries - over the last 5 years, the area grown has remained constant, but yields and production have varied, together with prices. Around 80% of Scottish strawberries are bought by the multiples for sale as fresh fruit. Growing in polytunnels has extended the season and improved quality. Eastern European workers have provided a ready supply of labour for picking.

• The raspberry acreage in Scotland has declined in recent years but Berry Scotland anticipate an increased market for fresh raspberries to reverse this trend in the coming years. Recent years have also seen increasing Class 1 fresh sales to supermarkets at the expense of Class 2, which has traditionally gone towards jam processing. The drop in Class 2 availability threatens jam processors who wish to brand their product as Scottish. With strong price competition from imported varieties, Scottish production is increasingly focused towards the fresh market.

• Virtually the entire Scottish blackcurrant crop (95%) is grown on contract for GSK to be used for the production of Ribena. Ribena is produced in England. The remaining 5% of Scottish blackcurrants stay in Scotland for pulping and jam production.

Barley

• Due to improving returns on production of wheat and biofuel crops, the acreage devoted to barley growth has declined. Most of the Scottish crop is sold to feed compounders outside Scotland with much of the remainder being used for malting, either in Scotland or just over the border.

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