SAOS Update
Summer 2025
Annual Report Marks 120 Years for Agri Co-operation in Scotland
WO R K I N G T O G E T H E R T O SHA P E T H E F U T U R E O F FA R M I N G A N D F O O D
Having just published our Annual Report – 120 years since the first one – it seems only right to take a step back and reflect on just how far SAOS as an organisation, and now a wider group of businesses, has come in that time. As we touch on in the Report, SAOS was originally established to help small farm holdings who were “at a disadvantage, even in British markets, by the superior organisation of their foreign competitors.” Times were hard and small farmers needed help to be better organised and secure more value from their produce to enable their survival. The world is now a very different place, but that core role of SAOS hasn’t changed so very much. Our farmers now have the benefit of good education and training, in addition to the lived, unique expertise of their land. And they now have at their disposal all manner of machinery, gadgets, technology and data to help with almost every task. But it’s still really tough to survive, let alone make a good living. And we know that despite, and partly due to, all these bells and whistles and the information they provide, ‘the job’ has only got more complicated. A lack of clear guidance and direction, and way too many contrasting opinions around farming’s future has left farmers at best confused and frustrated and, at worst, without much hope. Our May SAOS Council meeting was hosted by our co-op member, Scottish Shellfish (SSMG) and involved a factory tour and a briefing from MD, Rob Mitchell, who gave us a potted history of the co-op’s development. He
covered how more recently their marketing has tapped into the key elements sought after by their buyers - sustainability, health, community and convenience - to help promote their main offering of mussels. They have also expanded what they can offer their buyers to help give them an edge and become the ‘go to’ supplier that makes life easier for their customers.
know-how to get the right people working together on a shared goal, is still key, and that’s what makes us different. We know how to do get things done and, to quote two exSAOS stalwarts, “we are the honest brokers” in a “room full of snake oil and fairy dust merchants”. While, for some, co-operation might seem ‘unbusiness-like’, that really couldn’t be further from the truth. We know that co-operation makes great sense, in trying times in particular, when more heads are better than one to discuss a problem, and pooled resources provide investment in infrastructure, innovation and R&D, better risk management and access to paid experts for all manner of tasks to free up that invaluable commodity: time for other things.
Looking back at the first Annual Report, it states how the (Liberal) Government of the day was urged to give as much support as possible to SAOS, as co-operation was being Annual Report celebrated as key to Scotland’s agricultural future - and indeed generous support was given. Sadly, Also fairly recently, Scottish Shellfish our government funding has not expanded their export business, kept pace with inflation, but we developing new markets in different have been applying the pivotal countries during their down seasons co-op value of self-help in the when their own mussels are development of trading subsidiaries unavailable, but Scottish mussels are to generate returns to invest back plentiful and at their prime. into our core purpose. We, like We found this strive for ‘what’s next’ the United Nations (see overleaf) – constantly exploring how best have no doubt that co ops and to help members and customers co-operation are the solution for inspiring, and it’s very much what we achievable, sustainable agricultural at SAOS are all about. Our Annual and rural development and that Report, and many of the articles government support for increasing in this newsletter, cover a host of farmer co-operation is vital to topics, initiatives and projects that fulfilling its own needs. We will keep would bamboozle our forebearers, fighting the good fight with an eye but SAOS’s vision and expertise, always on the horizon for “What’s coupled with the knowledge and Next?” CELEBRATING 120 YEARS OF CO-OPERATIVE WORKING
2025
Working together to shape the future of farming and food
Our Annual Report is now available online at: www.saos.coop/whats-new/annual-reports/