NZ LAMB is not Scottish sheep producers' enemy in the battle for supermarket shelf space – that title should go to the cheap chicken and pork dominating Scottish shoppers' meat-buying habits.

That was the message from NSA Scotland chairman, John Fyall, speaking at a briefing ahead of NSA's Highland Sheep event, where he weighed in on recent 'shelfwatch' rows and made it clear that he'd prefer consumers to be eating lamb from wherever, and thus be open to choosing Scottish lamb, than lose them to the 'cheap proteins'.

"I'm not going to slate New Zealand lamb, but what I do have an issue with is the marketing of lamb in the supermarket," stated Mr Fyall, who said that foreign lamb should be better labelled. "I don't want to limit choice, I just want the choice to be there.

"All the New Zealand lamb at the moment was killed at Christmas. We can't control supply and demand, all we want is openness and there's no way they can buy foreign lamb at what they got it for this year," he said, noting the severely weakened value of sterling.

Now was the time, said Mr Fyall, for lamb producers and suppliers to speak with supermarkets to ensure that Scottish lamb will have a place on their shelves in the coming years: "We need a dialogue with supermarkets to instil confidence in the industry. The next two years are critical."

Reaching out to consumers and telling them about Scottish lamb's provenance was also essential: "There is not another animal in the world that has a life as close to natural as Scottish lamb, and educating the consumer about that is very important."

Mr Fyall added that while some supermarkets, such as Aldi, had shown great support to the domestic sheep industry, it was disappointing that last year's market commitments, particularly those made by Marks and Spencer and the Co-operative, had been reneged upon.