Red meat promotion body Quality Meat Scotland has invited a group of butchers and producers to Glamis Castle to take a tour of the Kinalty Haughs pig unit and see the outdoor reared pigs raised by the Strathmore Farming Company.

The company has a wide range of enterprises on its 5,000 acres, mostly around Glamis. The outdoor pig production unit compromises 600 sows homebred to live outdoors and also produce high quality offspring.

After the tour the group will be given a butchery demonstration on making the most of heavier pig carcases by award-winning butcher Richard Megahy from Simon Howie butcher shop in Perth.

Andy McGowan Industry Development Manager for QMS, said: “This event gives us the opportunity to bring the producers and butchers together so they can better understand each other’s businesses.

“Demonstrations like this are important for creating a sustainable pig sector as they give farmers the opportunity to meet with their customers and foster an understanding about how the whole chain works and the benefits to everyone from sourcing locally.

“With the butcher sector making up 12% of the value of sales of pork in Scotland, it is a large and important market for our pig industry. Although many of the products they already sell are local, we still think there is the opportunity to make high quality Scottish produce an even option for their businesses and their customers.“

Figures from independent market research firm TNS*, show that the pork market in Scotland was worth nearly 354 million, with butchers making up 12% or 36.4 million of that.