Earlier this year, Teresa Dougall took over the reins of Scottish Quality Crops (SQC) as its Managing Director. Here she talks to us about building a positive brand around Crop Assurance and how SQC is supporting growers to access rewarding markets and a sustainable and greener future.
“There’s always a pressure when it comes to Quality Assurance,” says Teresa. “Growers, however efficient, can anticipate it as an inconvenience or burden and assessors need to be sure they haven’t missed any detail in the process. This often means there are negative connotations around QA, but I’d like to see it recognised more positively for the opportunities it creates for growers.”
As she embarks on this role as Managing Director, and with the new appointment of Food Integrity Assurance (FIA*) as SQC’s independent certification body , Teresa is looking forward to making the coop more visible, strengthening industry relationships and securing opportunities for Scotland’s growers as markets change.
“As an independent farming cooperative, we’re all looking for the same: quality markets for a quality product. Our aim is to place Scotland’s combinable crops at the premium end of the UK and European markets, adding value to growers’ businesses by maximising cost-effective access to multiple market opportunities and to premiums. With worryingly high input costs, uncertainty around future agricultural policy and pressure to ‘grow greener’, farmers are having to think differently about how they manage crops and those premiums are becoming even more important.”
A central focus going forward for SQC will be how to best demonstrate growers’ green credentials as part of their Crop Assurance, to give them more influence in an increasingly environmentally-conscious market:
“As markets seek sustainability credentials and wider conversations grow around nutritional value, leveraging the provenance and nutritional assets of Scotland-grown cereals will be more important. This matters to whisky distillers who trade on their provenance and, as consumers become more aware of the impact their food choices have on the environment, this may become more central to other grain products. Biofuels is also an ever-growing market which is supporting cereal prices.”
SQC has seven cooperative partners formed of farming and associated industry partners, with a Board of Directors and executive committee which works with the Managing Director, the only paid position in the cooperative.
Funded by Scotland’s crop growers, the priority for SQC is evolving a farmers’ assurance scheme to add value to growers’ businesses by maximising cost-effective access to multiple market opportunities.
“The SQC logo provides reassurance and confidence to end users and intermediate processors that they are buying a safe, traceable, environmentally responsible product from Scotland.
“Being a cooperative comprising of partners from across the whole supply chain – and who also sit on our Board of Directors – gives us access to expertise and guidance from across the sector. Our focus is on delivery of our assurance scheme and the continuous development of it. SQC is funded solely through our farming members – keeping the structure and processes simple.”
Teresa and the SQC board are currently looking at how the standards are reviewed to ensure they remain simple, relevant and to make them more transparent for the wider industry to streamline and avoid duplication across quality assurance assessors. In particular, with Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) having also appointed FIA for its quality assurance certification, this should allow for greater streamlining of assessments through easier access to joint audits.
“SQC has always worked hard to maintain a sensible, pragmatic approach to assurance,” explains Teresa. “Audits, however much of a hassle they can seem, are a necessary process to guarantee markets. Partnering with FIA, we are working with farmers to give them the assets to leverage greater opportunities rather than trying to catch them out.”
Another major first task for Teresa is reapplying for silver status with SAI Global, to re-benchmark Scotland’s standard against Europe and maintain access to a wide range of markets.
Having worked previously as Director of Regions for NFU Scotland and at Scottish Land and Estates, Teresa has broad experience in working with rural businesses and membership organisations. Lobbying, cross-industry and stakeholder engagement and strategic planning played a significant part and have put her in good stead for the new role.
First established in 1994 and rebranded as Scottish Quality Crops in 2007, the next stage for the coop under Teresa is to develop its reputation as a modern progressive organisation, demonstrating leadership in sustainability and Quality Assurance standards in crop production as well as providing leadership for grower members; and, importantly, to be fully integrated at all stages of the supply chain.
“I am currently working with the SQC Board to finalise a new five-year strategy – with the aim of continuing the fantastic work that has been undertaken over the last few years. I would also like to see our members communicating more with us – to allow us to continually improve and directly address any concerns they have.
“I recognise that I still have plenty to learn about the arable sector, but with the support of a very experienced and well-informed board and executive committee, I look forward to driving the coop forward in interesting times ahead,” she continued. “The simple, streamlined structure of SQC makes change, progress and growth that much easier and I was particularly attracted to this role as it’s one in which I can see where we can grow opportunity for farmers and support them to embrace it.”
SQC is a co-operative formed of farming and associated industry partners:
*FIA provides independent assessment and certification services to SQC’s assurance programme
For more on SQC see www.sqcrops.co.uk
