New project will help improve low ground venison supply chain in Scotland

It was recently announced that a £119k pilot fund has been secured by NatureScot and the Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society (SAOS). The project will see SAOS working alongside the Lowland Deer Network Scotland and Scottish Venison and provide funding of up to 50% of capital costs to successful applicants.

We hope that this new source of funding will provide an improved infrastructure for handling and processing venison carcasses at a local level. This would allow lowland deer stalkers and wildlife managers the access to vital resources such as small chillers and other necessary facilities and equipment to carry out their operations in the Scottish lowland areas.

The COVID Recovery Fund currently supports three pilot chiller projects in Dumfries & Galloway, North Argyll, and Moray. The new facility at Barwhillanty Estate, Castle Douglas, cost around £50,000 and is predominantly for red, roe and fallow deer, and consists of both a chill and prep room. The COVID Recovery Fund provided around £20,000 for this project, with the estate funding the rest and is operated via a membership scheme.

In recent figures published by NatureScot, they estimated that income from deer management per annum is £15.8m, yet it costs £36.8m to shoot the deer. The private sector bears the brunt of this £21m shortfall so further incentivisation from the Scottish Government is needed to help minimise this additional expenditure.

Part-funding of equipment such as chillers, will go some way to bridge the gap between deer management and venison production. These types of schemes will hopefully allow deer managers to produce good quality, nutritious venison products for the UK food market and beyond. The Scottish Countryside Alliance welcomes the new £119k pilot project and hopes that further projects and incentivisation schemes are rolled out to help the 80% of private deer managers across Scotland to access vital resources to continue building on this infrastructure.

The new pilot scheme is open for submissions from stalkers and groups from Friday 31 January and will run until Thursday 20 March, with successful applicants notified by the end of March.

SAOS staff are available to help with applications, initial enquiries should be directed to venison@saos.coop