The horsemeat scandal has triggered a Keep Trade Local campaign across the county.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) in Kent and Medway is calling on the public to give even more support to local butchers and other independent retailers.

The campaign has been launched amid reports that local butchers have already seen a steep rise in trade from customers worried that horsemeat may be found in mass market products.

The FSB says that regulations such as Animal Passports ensure that local butchers know where their meat comes from and how the animal has been raised. It adds that the Food Standards Agency and environmental health officials can sample products in any butcher’s shop on demand.

Laurie Wakeham, proprietor of Wakeham Butchers in Bridge, near Canterbury, said: “Processed food is convenient and cheap and people have become blinkered to what is in the food they are buying. Small independent butchers are heavily regulated but we know exactly where every piece of meat we sell has come from because we can trace it back to the local farmer.”

The FSB in Kent and Medway has re-launched its Keep Trade Local campaign to highlight the important role of local high streets. Research indicates that more of the money spent locally stays local, with £1 spent with a local supplier worth £1.76 to the local economy.

Roger House, FSB chairman for Kent and Medway, said: “Independent shops often provide a better quality product – it may well have been sourced from a local farm and in many cases won’t have travelled far to reach the shop. It isn’t surprising that some local butchers have seen an increase in sales during the current scandal. We hope that this has a positive effect on the other independent retailers on the high street so that the greengrocer and baker also benefits.

“Shopping locally not only supports the shops on the high street, but the farmer or manufacturer down the road too and it puts the money spent back into the local economy. It has an important social function too being the focal point of the community.”

Nearly 13,000 independent businesses closed in 2011, according to the British Independent Retailers Association. The Meat Trades Journal found that 15,000 butchers have stopped trading since the mid-1980s.