With no access to most UK supermarket chains, people on Uist may be paying up to 50% more for Christmas dinner than they would on the mainland.
Christmas is the time of year for family feasting. But, in Uist, islanders could be paying far more for their seasonal fare than those on the mainland.
Earlier this year, community group Tagsa Uibhst joined with Nourish Scotland to research the availability of fresh fruit and vegetables on Uist.
Out of the 17 fruits and vegetables surveyed, only six were easily accessible from local shops.
And, they found, the study’s ‘shopping basket’ was 28% more expensive on Uist than through a Tesco online shop.
Tagsa Uibhst calls this an “island premium”.
People in Uist rely on “long food supply chains challenged by ferry problems and the rising cost of fuel, agricultural inputs, food and living costs”, Tagsa says.
A Christmas food price gap
Like many people, the price of food has been particularly on my mind over the Christmas season.
As the cost of living soars, people across Scotland will be shopping around for the best deals they can get on festive food.
But, for islanders, there are far fewer budget options than on the mainland.
To find out this particular ‘island premium’, I used a price comparison website to search for the cheapest traditional Christmas dinner possible from across major UK supermarkets – and then I took the same shopping list out to see how much I could get it all for on Uist.
Overall, the total cost of all the ingredients at the cheapest price was 50% higher in shops on Uist than in online UK supermarkets.
The biggest difference was in stuffing mix. The cheapest I could find it on Uist was at £1.55 a box – almost three and half times as much as Tesco’s own brand.
Coming in second was a jar of goose fat for the potatoes. At Aldi, you can get it for almost a third of the price that it costs here.
These two examples perfectly sum up what makes food shops on Uist so much more expensive than elsewhere: the lack of budget supermarket options, combined with not having access to larger supermarket own brands.
What’s the solution?
The ‘island premium’ is very real. But there is hope on the horizon.
With their ‘Our Right to Food’ manifesto, Tagsa Uibhst is calling for a overhaul of Uist’s food supply.
As well as campaigning for more budget options from large retailers to be available on the island, they are working to support Uist’s local food suppliers.
Investment in local food, Tagsa says, will “support growers, provide infrastructure, and make market linkages with shops, restaurants and hotels as well as establish regular local food markets for the community.”
And, as it happens, the very day that I was scouring Uist’s shops, I came home to a reminder of the wealth of locally-produced food on the islands.
Waiting on the doorstep for me was a gift from friends: half of one of their lambs and two bags of pollock.
That might be what you call a Christmas miracle.
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