Scots lose out in great puddin' race

SCOTLAND'S Government has been labelled the loser o' the puddin' race after failing to intervene in a transatlantic row over the national dish.

A long-standing US government ban on the import of offal means haggis cannot be taken into the States. But such is the enthusiasm there for Burns' favourite supper that an increasing number of smugglers are said to be risking a $1,000 fine to get the product past customs officials and sniffer dogs.

Holyrood officials had indicated they were planning to challenge the embargo, imposed after the 1989 BSE scare.

But a Government spokesman told Scotland on Sunday it had not contacted US officials because there was "no appetite" for it among haggis producers.

Jo Macsween, director of one of Scotland's biggest haggis companies, Macsween of Edinburgh, said: "I don't remember being consulted by the Government, but if America's borders were not so restricted we would love to get into that market.

"The Scottish Government could be doing more to help because there's huge curiosity in America about anything British and especially Scottish."

John Fallon, chief executive of Grant's, Scotland's biggest producer of tinned haggis, added: "We've tried haggis from America before to see what we're up against, and it's not very good. If Scotch whisky was being made in America we wouldn't stand for that, so why are we allowing them to make our haggis?"

Meanwhile, Mckean's of Scotland has set up in Maine, producing haggis using local offal. Spokesman Ron Thurston said: "The market is huge."