OUR readers have been keeping their eyes on their local shops and stores following the launch of The National’s Save our Scotland Brand campaign targeting our food and drink industry, which last year earned more in export value than oil, according to UK Government figures.

The latest example of “Union Jackery”, as we call the practice of branding Scottish items as British, were raspberries seen in the Morrisons store at Hunters Tryst in Edinburgh. The supermarket has been by no means the worst offenders in trying to downgrade Scottish produce, and indeed the Yorkshire-based company has made efforts in the past to boost Scottish-made food and drink.

In its fresh produce section, reader Muriel Nelson spotted Scottish raspberries labelled as “Angus UK” with a Union Flag on the packaging.

We despatched a reporter to confirm the sighting and asked Morrisons the following questions: “In the case of your raspberries, they are emblazoned with a Union Flag but the producer is shown as ‘Angus UK’. Can you say why, as with other retailers, they are not marked as Scottish with a Saltire?

“Are you aware that Scottish farmers are angry because the Scottish brand is not being used in stores in Scotland?” The company had not replied by the time The National went to press.

Local resident and regular shopper Mary Campbell was upset about the designation. She said: “I want to know when food is made here in Scotland. That’s only natural because I want to support Scottish farmers and workers first and foremost.

“I have nothing against English companies using the Union flag on their stuff because they think it is their flag anyway. But why don’t they put the flag of St George on English goods, the Welsh dragon on stuff made in Wales and leave us the Saltire for meat and fruit from here in Scotland?”

The importance of quality to the Scottish brand cannot be overstated and yesterday the Scottish Government underlined its role. A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The success of Scotland’s food and drink industry has been founded on our reputation for quality and provenance.

“There are plans through Ambition 2030, the new national food and drink strategy, to build on this success and develop the brand further so that businesses of all sizes can benefit in key domestic and international markets.”

Yesterday, a leading farmer also explained precisely why the Scottish brand is so important.

Daye Tucker, 72, one of the founding members of Farmers for Yes, runs Carbeth Home Farm between Killearn and Balfron.

She is a South East Rural leader, convenor of Killearn Community Futures Company, a member of Forth & Clyde National Farmers Union Scotland regional committee, and represents Scottish Land & Estates on numerous bodies such as the Scottish Association of Farmers’ Markets, Care Farming Scotland, and The Grow Your Own Group.

She told The National: “All the supermarkets have been at it but they need reminded what the customer wants after the horse meat and other food scandals – provenance that proves the quality of the food and drink.

“It has taken us many years to get recognition of the quality of Scottish produce, and that is the whole crux of the matter about branding.

“What we are about is high quality, and the branding reflects the nature of our landscapes, the purity of our air and the high standards of our animal welfare.

“There has been cooperation across the farming industry regardless of what parties the wealthier farmers support – they all understand that Scotland the brand is important for income and jobs.

“When we see supermarkets remove Saltires and replace them with Union flags, it’s not just the cynics among us who would say that it is yet another attempt in the face of the rising support for independence to put pressure on the big players to oppose it.

“Since the Brexit vote, there has been a concerted effort to promote buying British, but you don’t subsume your Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish identities under British, just because the English have been very poor at promoting their own brand – the Red Tractor – and their animal welfare standards have been lower than ours.

‘‘We have very high animal health standards and we are TB-free in our livestock. That’s not the case in England.”

Tucker added: “The general public of Scotland, when you ask them, want to see produce identified as Scottish because they want to know the provenance of their food.

“Supermarkets putting produce under the British brand denies the quality of Scottish food and drink, and that in the long run will cost jobs and income in our industries.”

Tucker also says it is not a party political matter. She added: “The Unionists who think Scottish branding is just an SNP thing are so wrong, because the demand for it is coming from across the industry – even the No-voting farmers are behind this.”