Game dealer lands £1.5m tender to supply venison

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) has awarded a major venison contract worth around £1.5million to Ardgay Game. 

The Sutherland-based processor said winning the tender, worth about £306,000 annually over five years, would result in the creation of two full-time and nine seasonal jobs. 

Earlier this year, FLS invited venison processors to tender for contracts in 10 geographic lots. Highland Game will continue to operate in nine of these areas but has now been joined by Ardgay Game. 

Anton Watson, head of deer management at FLS, said: “Deer management is fundamentally important to our woodland creation and our habitat conservation work. 

“An important aspect of this is having the necessary infrastructure behind the scenes to help us get Scottish venison to market and on to people’s plates. Ardgay Game is excellently placed to work with us in the north of Scotland.” 

Professional stalker Chris Dalton said: “We are repeatedly asked to increase our cull of deer with little or no market for the resulting venison. It’s good to see growth in the dealer market, which might lead to better prices down the line and provide a consistent supply of local venison hitting our supermarkets and shops.”