Scottish potato industry representatives met with rural development minister Ross Finnie to discuss the disease risk facing the potato industry.
The meeting follows the confirmation of the UK's first ever case of potato ring rot on a farm in Wales last month and saw NFU Scotland, Scottish Potato Trade Association and British Potato Council raise their concerns to the minister.
The NFU Scotland is continuing to push for official high health regions to be introduced in Europe to recognise and protect disease-free areas. This would allow Scotland to be officially designated as free of potato ring rot and for a legislative ban on imports of seed from non-designated areas to be introduced.
Sandy Bayne, the chairman of the NFUS Potato Working Group, a potato grower from Perthshire, said: “The continued incidence of ring rot in mainland Europe is a real worry. The Welsh case has shown how easy it is to introduce this disease in the absence of strict import controls. Businesses that import seed from areas where the disease is common are playing with fire and are not just endangering their own business, but those of their neighbours as well. We urged the minister to press the case in Europe for high health reasons.”