The Scottish government has launched a 10-year strategy for the food and drink industry which aims to increase turnover by 25% by 2028.
Sustaining Scotland, Supplying the World: a strategy for Scotland’s food and drink industry has been developed by the Scotland Food and Drink Partnership, and was launched by First Minister Humza Yousaf at the Royal Highland Show.
The government will provide £5 million to support year one of the strategy and further funding will be considered as part of future budgets.
Industry will contribute a further £1 million, bringing total funding for year one of the strategy to £6 million.
The strategy has three main ‘missions’: Build resilience; drive responsible growth; and lead the way in environmental sustainability.
Areas to focus on that are identified in the strategy are:
- Attract and retain a highly skilled workforce;
- Embrace digital competence and maximise the vast opportunities of e-commerce;
- Drive investment in automation to improve productivity;
- Foster greater levels of innovation with links to Scotland’s world-leading research and academic base;
- Develop stronger links with the primary production sectors, and facilitate fairer, more effective supply chains;
- Encourage a policy and regulatory environment that enables growth;
- Simplify and enhance the support landscape for food and drink businesses.
“The new Scotland Food & Drink Partnership industry strategy will lay the foundations for sustainable growth for one of our country’s most important economic sectors,” Iain Baxter, chief executive of Scotland Food and Drink said.
“Sustaining Scotland. Supplying the World is a collaborative strategy that brings together businesses, leadership bodies and government to chart a sustainable and profitable path for the industry.
“Our food and drink sector is a major economic contributor, so having a unifying strategy to drive forward a positive vision for the industry is essential.
“We have the opportunity to cement ourselves as a world leader in sustainability. That’s sustainability in the widest possible sense – environmental impacts, societal fairness, and economically sustainable.”
