WHILE THE final situation on Brexit remains unclear, John Lohoar, farm manager at the Glenbervie estate in Aberdeenshire, was keen to take the temperature of the lucrative European pedigree beef market and test what the UK’s withdrawal from the EU might mean, so recently attended an Aberdeen Angus auction in Germany.

The Glenbervie Aberdeen Angus herd has 200 cows and every year sells between 30 and 40 heifers into the European Union: “Our herd was founded on females from the Blelack and Newcairnie herds, and the first Angus cow arrived here in 1992,” said Mr Lohoar. “All Glenbervie cattle are either finished for slaughter at Scotbeef and sold in Marks and Spencer, or are sold as breeding females around the world. We’ve sold bulling heifers to countries including Romania, Germany, Spain and Estonia.”

“With 21 heifers sold into France in August, and eight off to Romania in September, it’s an important market for us.”

At the end of October, John went to Gundelfingen, north of Munich, for the seventh sale of UK bred A-A heifers, to see who was buying.

“The sale restarted seven years ago, when the BSE crisis subsided, and the Germans are still in the early days of organised sales,” he reported. However, they seem to appreciate the support of the more experienced Scots with eager buyers from Romania, the Czech Republic, Switzerland as well as Germany. The majority of the cattle there were from the UK, along with cattle from Bernhard Delle’s Donaumoos Aberdeen Angus herd.

Mr Delle, who runs the German Angus group and organised the sale, owns the Landgasthof Sonne hotel and butchery, as well as an A-A herd. The hotel steakhouse, with 300 covers, serves quality A-A meat.

“We manage the entire process in the Angus business closing the circle – from the pasture to the plate in the restaurant,” said Mr Delle. “Angus beef is steak beef. Currently we can see a change in attitude among customers towards greater awareness of quality.

“Whether Hungary, Romania, Ukraine or Serbia – the countries of Eastern Europe offer excellent potential for the breeding of quality cattle," he said. "The seventh sale of pedigree A-A stock has lived up to expectation and confirms the European consumer confidence in the quality of Aberdeen-Angus beef.”

John said he was happy with the reassurance he took away from being at the sale: “Our message is ‘quality beef from quality cattle’ and it’s one that resonates in Europe,” he said. “The Romanians get a subsidy to stock herds with UK heifers to expand bloodlines.

“Their aim is to double the country’s stock from 40,000 head of cattle to 80,000. The good thing in the face of Brexit is that they are still keen to secure the supply of A-A from the UK.

"The Germans are expanding more slowly than Romanians. They operate a co-operative system, working together to spread knowledge and appreciation of the A-A breed. It’s an approach I admire,” admitted John. “We all need to realise that our competitors are suppliers of chicken or tofu and not other cattle breeders.”

So if there’s an eighth A-A heifer sale in 2020 – will John be there? “The consensus is they definitely want our heifers,” he said. “It’s a premium market for us, even if there are added costs involved, so I think we can safely say the Angus has a strong future in Europe.”