Executive manager of Scottish Craft Butchers, Gordon King

SCOTTISH CRAFT Butchers, like many food industry stakeholders, have had some challenging trading conditions over the last 12 months. There is nothing to suggest that 2022 will not be the same.

The local food shops have displayed great resilience and strength to build on the confidence that consumers placed in them since the start of the pandemic. They have provided concerned shoppers with a safe shopping experience and in many cases, consumers have come to appreciate the high-quality meat that a local, employer owned and operated, business can provide.

It is our desire to continue to impress on the consumer the benefits of shopping local. buying local and supporting local.

With short supply chains and strong working relationships between farmers, processors, and local family run butchers, we can build strong customer bases which will last for many years to come.

There is much more interest from the customer in the provenance of the meat they purchase. They want to see a local, sustainable, low carbon footprint supply chain. If we can back this up by also displaying, long established and effective, working relationships between all those in the supply chain then we will all benefit going forward