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09 October 2023
Last week Karen Morgan, Deputy Director International Trade: Agriculture Food and Drink for the Department of Business and Trade (DBT), carried out a whistlestop tour of Scotland. During the visit, the SAOS team introduced Karen to Aberdeenshire-based primary agriculture businesses active in the export market.
Oat Co. Scotland was co-founded by the Booths and Russells — two families with generations of farming heritage and farms just five miles apart. They've been growing oats for decades, with every new generation holding the same goal — to care for the land and make it even better for the next. The two families have a long history of cooperation and growing Scottish oats, and this cooperative approach led the both families to start planning a new joint venture — to build a dedicated gluten-free oat mill for the production of pure, healthy oat products.
Pictured, left to right, at OatCo Scotland: SAOS's Patrick Hughes, Raymond Marquardt, Karen Morgan, Andrew Booth.
Karen also visited Jim and Tom Cargill of DM Cargill an exporter of Scottish seed potatoes. Jim is also the vice-chair of the Seed Potato Organisation, an independent and democratic organisation, set up as a co-operative, run by seed growers for the benefit of its members.
Pictured left to right at DM Cargill: Jim Cargill, Tom Cargill, Patrick Hughes of SAOS and Karen Morgan.
The visit proved an excellent platform to discuss the export potential of primary Scottish Agriculture and where the Department of Business & Trade can assist in the sector realising the export potential.