HEREFORDSHIRE Council leader Terry James has expressed his anger over a company's importation of meat from Zimbabwe.

Mr James, also a Kington farmer, has written to the chief executive of Aldi Stores at Atherstone in Warwickshire, after receiving a letter from a member of the public in Herefordshire regarding the sale of meat and especially beef in the company's stores.

In his letter, Mr James said it appeared that a few months ago the daughter of a member of the person's household went to the Aldi Store in Blackwood and bought a quantity of frozen beef. That evening, on examining the label on the beef, she discovered that the product was from Zimbabwe and, coming from an agricultural background and aware that foot and mouth was endemic in that country, she destroyed the meat.

Mr James wrote: "Having just gone through the greatest economic and social crisis in this county in my lifetime as a result of the infection of our livestock by foot and mouth from a source as yet unidentified, you will, perhaps, understand why I and other members of this community in Herefordshire view the sale of Zimbabwean meat in the United Kingdom as an unacceptable risk.

"I would ask whether your company has or does intend to market this particular product in the United Kingdom and especially in Herefordshire. If so, I wish to register in the strongest terms my disgust and anger at such a policy."

The Hereford Times contacted Aldi Stores Limited but was told that no-one was available for comment.