Covid restrictions have kept the farming sector apart for the last few years, but QMS's new boss is keen to make up for lost time by reconnecting with farmers this summer.

Speaking to The Scottish Farmer in her first days as the organisation's new chief executive, Sarah Miller, told us: “We are looking at sustained engagement with the industry.”

She added: “QMS, like everyone else, has been behind a computer screen due to the restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic. Undoubtedly, this limited how we were able to get out and about. We have held lots of virtual meetings, but they are not the same and we have not been able to get to any events such agricultural shows.

“But now Covid is having less of an impact, we are looking at having sustained engagement with the industry. This won’t just happen at a board level, but through all of our committees groups and getting to meetings across Scotland.”

With a new CEO at the helm, QMS is now looking to embrace opportunities to develop, support, promote and protect Scotland’s red meat sector. This will be delivered as a Non Departmental Public Body (NDPB) which has been the case since 2008, when the levy body was moved into the public sector.

As a result, the organisation was brought much closer to the Scottish Government, evidenced by the 2021 business plan stating that QMS should have a ‘strategy informed and aligned with Scottish Government policy.’

However, this does offer the levy body the ability to influence government behind the scenes through providing an evidence base for plans which affect the red meat sector. Mrs Miller explained that QMS was not able to directly lobby government, but that a lot was happening behind the schemes through providing an evidence base for policy decisions.

Whilst the board is appointed by the Public Appointments Committee and the chair is selected by Scottish ministers, there are a number of roles within sub-committees and groups that are within the gift of QMS to appoint.

Mrs Miller was keen to stress it is not a 'closed shop': “QMS works hard with stakeholders to make sure these committees are filled with the right people. It is quite hard to identify people who want to be on a committee, as people from the farming community are busy, but virtual meetings have helped. Anyone in the farming community who wants to be involved should get in touch.”

Mrs Miller takes the helm at a time of change within the organisation and the contract to run quality farm assurance is moving to Food Integrity Assurance (FIA),a new body which beat a number of bidders to take on the scheme.

Under the new regime, she said some of the previous inspectors might move across to the new company, but they do not fall under TUPE legislation which would compel FIA to hire them.

She hoped that FIA will support farmers taking part in Quality Assurance and was keen to drive up the number of farms in the scheme. But she was wary of the recommendation in Jim Walker’s beef report that farm assurance be a requirement to trigger government payments on livestock farms.

“I think farm assurance is voluntary, which means something very different. I would like to see more farms Quality Assured, but it is voluntary and I wouldn’t want the authenticity of this to be lost if it became mandatory for release of government support.”

Alongside new changes, Mrs Miller was keen to bring some projects which had been languishing, more to the fore. Improved meat eating quality has been a long held ambition of QMS, but previous projects, such as the IMEQ, had failed to make an impact.

She wanted this to change: “We are looking again at eating quality and making an assessment on developments in Scotland, the UK and wider afield. From this, we will come forward with recommendations this summer and have actions to be taken forward.”

The new CEO was also keen to push forward progress on Scotland’s Specially Selected Pork brand. “Obviously, Scotland’s pork sector has been under massive challenges, but the Brown Brothers purchase of Brechin was a big step forward for the sector. We are looking again at our Specially Selected Pork brand and ways to improve it.”

However, the Scotch PGIs for Beef and Lamb are not so easily changed, according to Mrs Miller. As they are still registered with the EU, any changes made will mean that there would need to be a full reapplication of the PGI.

She pointed out that this means that tweaking any areas, such as the frequency of inspections, would not be simple under the current PGI legislation.