While Defra procrastinates over the release of its 25-year plan for Food and Farming, Scotland is forging ahead with its own food and drink industry vision.
The industry-led ‘Building on Success: Deepening Collaboration, Food and Drink in Scotland’ report sets out a number of recommendations for how the country’s food and drink sector can grow and prosper.
Recommendations include a greater focus on new product development, a new industry wide skills development plan, better collaboration between the public and private sectors, and greater promotion and marketing of Scottish produce overseas.
“This [report] has been borne from excellent partnership working across the industry and public sector, but neither can stand still and become complacent – we must stay ahead of the game and one step in front of our competitors,” said Scottish Food Secretary Richard Lochead, who commissioned the report.
Lochead added: “I wanted to see the actions we need to take, collectively, to build on our remarkable success and make Scotland the best country in the world to run a food and drink business.”
