The second phase of NFU Scotland’s ShelfWatch survey is now underway in major retailers Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Co-op, Marks & Spencer, Lidl and Aldi.
The union started the supermarket survey in January which highlighted how and where Scottish produce is being made available to buy.
An independent research firm visited 71 stores across mainland Scotland, looking at more than 15,000 products of beef, lamb, pork, chicken, eggs, vegetables and dairy.
Since phase one results of the survey were reported, Asda attended the NFUS annual conference, and a further meeting is taking place.
The union has also met with Aldi, Tesco and Sainsbury’s, and meetings with M&S and Morrisons are planned.
Requests for meetings with other retailers – Lidl and Co-op – have yet to receive a reply.
Round one of survey featured 71 store visits and 15,000 products
ShelfWatch phase two will continue to look at the availability and origin of all fresh and lightly processed goods on Scottish supermarket shelves with a one-off look at branded Scottish products in the dairy category.
It will also examine the labelling on those products to better understand the transparency for consumers in making choices.
The results from round two will be reported next month ahead of the Royal Highland Show.
In total, four ShelfWatch studies will be carried out this year.
All retailers involved in the latest survey were notified 24 hours in advance of the study commencing.
Four ShelfWatch studies to be carried out in 2024
NFUS chief executive John Davidson said the first results in February revealed a “completely mixed bag” of what is going on in supermarkets across Scotland.
“Over the coming year, ShelfWatch will identify those retailers who are giving outstanding support to local food production in Scotland and those who must do better,” he said.
“While it was encouraging to see that there was strong support for Scottish and UK produce in general and examples of some retailers stocking 100% Scottish, others at that time had little or no Scottish produce amongst own-label goods on their shelves in some sectors.
‘We will identify the supermarkets who must do better’ says NFUS chief
“We will use these results to inform discussions with those retailers who have been identified as having zero or low levels of Scottish produce available to better understand any sourcing challenges they have and look to resolve these.
“Our ambition is that, when we come to complete our final ShelfWatch at the end of this year, there has been a marked improvement in the availability of Scottish produce in Scottish stores, allowing our consumers to fully support the hard work of Scottish farmers and crofters.”
