“It was the haggis, a brownish lump sitting unobtrusively to one side of the plate, that drew the most riveting attention.” – Tom Knapp
Since the 1971 UK foot and mouth outbreak, haggis imports have been banned in the USA resulting in millions of Americans missing out on Scotland’s most famous pud.Unsurprisingly, this has caused a lot of distress among our American counterparts. Millions of Americans claim Scottish ancestry, and enjoy celebrating Scottish holidays.
Burns Night in particularly suffers from a lack of haggis, where the ‘great-chieftain o’ the pudding-race’ should be central to the celebrations. In fact the US has the biggest Robert Burns society in the world!
When we heard that Environmental Secretary Owen Paterson would be raising the issue with the US government in a bid to have the ban lifted as soon as possible, we couldn’t help but let out a small cheer!
Haggis is worth over £15 million to the UK economy every year, and if the American market is opened up, the possibilities are huge! Not only that, but as a haggis manufacturing company, we can only sympathise with what Americans are currently missing out on. Instead of a delicious combination of traditional Scottish oats, spices and seasoning with the finest delicate Scotch lamb meat, our friends in the US are forced to compromise!
We do hope that haggis will once again make an American debut … until then … all the more for us at home!
Find our full range of traditional Scottish puds on our online shop.