Red meat levy monies lost as a result of Scottish born animals being slaughtered south of the border could return to Scotland by 2017.
Speaking at the Royal Highland Show in Edinburgh farm minister Richard Lochhead said government had moved one step closer to resolving the issue.
“Scotland continues to lose around £1.5million [in levies] per year and change is long overdue,” said Mr Lochhead.
“It does, however, appear that there could be light – albeit a flicker – at the end of the tunnel with agreement across the UK-wide industry to advise minister to change the law.
“So it appears that in 2017, after 10 years of relentless lobbying, explaining, and justifying, our levies could be rightfully and wholly supporting Scottish agriculture.”
Quality Meat Scotland chief executive Uel Morton said it was hoped consultations on the issue would be launched by the various UK administrations later this year.
While, the chair of levy body organisation AHDB, Peter Kendall, said progress had been made in resolving the issue but more detail was needed to make sure it was possible to verify which country the levy should go to.
“It’s harder with sheepmeat, which means there’s more work to do with that,” he said.