Food and Drink

Food & Drink Opportunities Created

• We live in a land of quality food and drink, whose products are demanded around the world.
• The SNP Government has created the first national food and drink policy in these islands. It focuses on maximising opportunities and promotes quality, sustainability, health and affordability.
• We held the first national food and drink conference in November 2010.
• We are working with partners across Scotland to achieve our ambitions.

Business Examples

• Girvan Early Growers has doubled its by working with suppliers such as Cygnet Potato Breeders, despite intense world competition.
• Mackays produced 30 tonnes of fruit in 1995 and 350 tonnes in 2007, providing new markets for fruit not suitable for direct sale.
• Highland Grain and the Edrington Group increased their malting barley from 1,000 tonnes in 1995 to 13,000 tonnes in 2007 through partnership working. 
• We have provided support to 53 Farmers Markets over Scotland with some £200,000 funding over three years and have created the Scottish Farmers’ Markets Partnership. 
• Our support from trade delegations has bossted exports by some £60 million and driven up the sector by 15% in only two years. 
• We created a Groceries Code Adjudicator which helps safeguard many smaller suppliers, promotes choice and quality. 
• £7.38 million of SRDP has been sourced to support organics and we are working with stakeholders to develop a Organic Action Plan. 
• The Food Processing and Marketing Co-operation Scheme has provided £25 million from a total investment of £87 million thus protecting 5,489 jobs.

Successes

• Scottish brands sales in Britain are 30% more over 3 years. 
• Scotch Beef sales in Scotland are up by 21%. 
• Exports up 15% between 2007 and 2009. 
• Our primary producers supply a quarter of all the raw materials for Scottish food and drink manufacturing.