Meeting of the Parliament 13 September 2018
Mr Stevenson has made a very good point, with which I agree. It is vital that we get a sensible outcome with respect to geographical indications, so I will continue to express our concerns to UK ministers when I meet them once again on Monday next week.
It is exactly a year since I stood in Parliament and spoke about the exciting new food and drink strategy—called ambition 2030—that is being led by the industry. That ambitious plan of action, from an ambitious industry, aims to grow the industry to £30 billion by 2030. I have every confidence that with the help of this Government’s long-established commitment to the sector, and the £10 million of direct investment that has been provided to support ambition 2030, the strategy can succeed.
Much has been achieved during the year, including continued efforts to promote and showcase the industry in Scotland and abroad at trade shows in Brussels, Boston, Japan and Hong Kong, and a range of programmes to support businesses, including the supplier accreditation programme, which seeks to help businesses to achieve British Retail Consortium standard.
There has also been on-going investment through our European grant schemes. Among our largest grants have been grants to Albert Bartlett for a new packaging facility and to Scotbeef for a new abattoir and processing facility. Those world-class facilities are being assisted by support from the Scottish Government.
We have published a number of sectoral action plans covering fruit and vegetables, pigs and—just last week—venison. More will follow over the coming months. They represent a series of practical actions to drive economic growth in the sector.
Outwith the ambition 2030 strategy, we have been busy with many new policies that contribute to the development of the food and drink sector. In August, the First Minister was in Arran to launch our new food tourism action plan, which aims to double by 2030 the amount that visitors spend on food and drink. We recently launched a regional food fund of £250,000 to support growth in Scotland’s local and regional food and drink sector. We have appointed Gary Maclean as our national chef to showcase our quality produce and encourage understanding and use of healthy and sustainable food. Gary has done great work since his appointment—not least in encouraging an interest in cooking in schools and the wider community.