SAC Rural Policy Centre

How competitive is the Scottish agricultural industry? To answer this question SAC compared Scottish agriculture with a number of similar sized countries using a structure-conduct-performance approach. While Scottish agriculture compared well on some measures, opportunities for improvement were found.

Denmark, the Republic of Ireland and New Zealand were considered appropriate comparator countries due to similarities in population size, the farming systems practised and the importance of agriculture within the general economy. All of these countries are noted for the competitiveness of their agricultural industries and are big exporters of agri-food products.

The factsheet compares the structure of the different industries and their performance and examines the strengths of Scottish agriculture in light of this comparison.