Edinburgh Zoo is to import 15 tonnes of organic bamboo shoots at an annual cost of £70,000 ($141,380) to feed a pair of pandas donated by China.
Animal welfare groups said yesterday the fortnightly 2000km round trip from a farm in the Netherlands raised questions over the wisdom and long-term sustainability of basing the 10-year breeding programme in Britain.
The pandas, which will cost the zoo £1 million a year to keep, are expected to be brought from their home at the Yaian reserve in Sichuan, arriving in the Scottish capital in time for Christmas.
It is hoped Tian Tian and Yang Guang - the first pandas in Britain for 17 years - will help turn the troubled zoo into an international visitor attraction.
More than 15,000kg of bamboo a year will be loaded on to lorries from a farm on the outskirts of Amsterdam and taken to Rotterdam. From there it will be transported by ferry to Harwich before being driven to Edinburgh.
