QMS to Receive €2.5 million EC support

Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) is to receive €2.5million (just over £2 million) in support from the European Commission to promote Scotch Beef PGI and Scotch Lamb PGI in eight countries in Europe.

The announcement today (Thursday June 28th) confirmed the  European Commission has approved an application from QMS to promote the products in a programme of activity in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, The Netherlands and the UK.  

Uel Morton, Chief Executive of Quality Meat Scotland, said the organisation was absolutely delighted to receive the news of the successful application for EU funding. 

“This is the third time QMS has been successful in partnering with the European Union to promote Scotland’s quality beef and lamb under the Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) scheme.  

“The grant awarded to QMS also includes promotional activities in the domestic market which remains the main focus of the successful application accounting for half of the budget. 

“The export priorities and specific countries were identified as a result of an export strategy review conducted by QMS during 2011, with the new strategy announced at the Anuga Food Fair in Cologne in October.”

Mr Morton also voiced appreciation of the effort staff at QMS had devoted to the submission of the application.  “Our marketing team at QMS committed considerable  time and energy to  ensuring we submitted a very good application with great attention to detail. Our small administration team has also worked hard to develop effective systems for managing the complex claims procedures involved in this sort of funding.”

Laurent Vernet, Head of Marketing with QMS, added: “This new scheme will start in October 2012 and the programme totals  €5,054,714 (just over £4 million) over three years. The programme will be co-financed 50:50 by the Scottish red meat industry levy and the European Commission.  

“The grant application process started last year and involved a detailed and precise programme of activities that QMS is now committed to delivering over the next three years.

“There are five types of activities scheduled for these eight countries: design, production of point of sale material, distribution of point of sale material, advertisement and events/public relations.”