Feast or famine - the importance of the food and drink sector

The food and drink industry in Scotland employs more than 350,000 people and, while other areas struggled during the recession, it has continued to see huge economic growth.
Each year, records for exports and turnover are broken and readjusted upwards - and both government and businesses predict there is much more to come.

But at the same time, when the Scottish Government set out its Good Food Nation strategy in June last year, it highlighted a “profound paradox” between a nation now renowned worldwide for high quality produce and a poor food culture that has left many people who live here “disconnected” from their food, with unhealthy diets and attitudes towards food and drink.

Good Food Nation highlights areas of concern about economic growth including a continuing lack of market diversity, with the success of whisky sometimes masking lesser performing areas.

The new organisation, Food Standards Scotland, will officially take over its functions on 1 April and its remit will be mainly the functions previously delivered by the Food Standards Agency. These include food safety and standards, feed safety and standards, nutrition, food labelling, and meat inspection policy and operational delivery.

Its objectives are consumer focused and will be to protect the public from risks which may arise in connection with the consumption of food, including risks caused by the way in which food is produced or supplied; to improve the extent to which members of the public have diets which are conducive to good health; and to protect the other interests of consumers in relation to food.

Figures released last year showed Scotland’s food and drink industry had grown by 4.8 per cent on the previous year and now has a turnover of nearly £14bn.
Targets were set by the industry in 2009 to reach £12.5bn by 2017, but that was met six years early.

However, in September, the Scotch Whisky Association reported that exports of Scotch in the first half of the year were £1.77bn, down 11 per cent from £1.99bn in the same period of 2013. Following a decade of fast growth, the demand for Scotch is levelling off in some markets. However, there is confidence in the long-term future of Scotch, with many projects for new distilleries under way, and up to £2bn of capital investment in Scotland committed by producers.