Over a two-week period, NFU Scotland staff and members visited supermarket chains across the country to see the amount of home-produced beef available over imported beef.
The ‘shelf watch’ surveyed a total of 31 supermarket stores, across Scotland, with 8,197 packs of fresh beef counted between 27 February and 12 March 2019. The NFU Scotland surveyed 1,292 packs at Aldi, with 1,240 being Scottish and 52 British. The stores visited were Peterhead, Dalry (Edinburgh), Irvine, Beach Boulevard (Aberdeen) and Inverurie.
Aldi said this marked the 25th anniversary of opening its first store in Scotland and the 10th anniversary of the creation of its dedicated Scottish buying department.
Graham Nicolson, group buying director, Aldi Scotland, said the company was “absolutely committed” to supporting Scottish farmers.
“This means consumers can be confident that when they buy beef from Aldi, they are directly supporting Scottish farmers and are enjoying only the highest-quality produce,” he said.
“Aldi continues to lead the way with local sourcing and we are immensely proud of our strong relationships with local suppliers and of our reputation for having the best-quality Scottish products available on our shelves.”
Having the Scottish buying department meant that Aldi now works with more than 80 local suppliers and stocks more than 400 Scottish products.
This year Aldi is opening seven new stores across Scotland, creating an additional 200 jobs by the end of 2019. Aldi said it would be opening 65 new stores across the UK, adding that, by 2025, it will operate more than 1,200 stores.
It is the UK’s fifth-largest and fastest-growing supermarket with more than 825 stores and 34,000 employees.