Meeting of the Parliament 13 September 2018
As the cabinet secretary outlined, Scotland’s food and drink sector is one of its stand-out economic success stories. The sector is estimated to be worth around £14 billion each year to Scotland’s economy. It accounts for one manufacturing job in five and around 115,400 people are employed in one of the 18,000 food and drink businesses in the country. I will say something about what the industry means nationally and to rural constituencies such as mine.
Last year, the First Minister joined the Scotland Food & Drink partnership to launch ambition 2030—the industry’s objective to more than double turnover in the sector, with the aim of reaching £30 billion by 2030. One way to unlock the £30 billion potential of the industry is by raising its attractiveness as a career and investing in the workforce.
To risk singling out one of the dozen islands that I represent, the Isle of Harris is a case in point and has already been referred to. The distillery in Tarbert, which was established with Scottish Government assistance, has resulted in a focus on Harris as an increasingly clear brand for gin, as it will soon be for whisky. It is no exaggeration to say that, taken together with the growth of tourism, the resurgence of Harris tweed and the presence of a marina and other small businesses, the distilling industry has helped to transform what remains one of the most fragile rural economies in Scotland.
In Lewis, the Abhainn Dearg whisky has had success of its own in the Japanese market and elsewhere, which shows what even the smallest of distilleries can do to create a name for the whisky brand worldwide.
Ambition 2030 is also partly about the supply chain and ensuring that farmers, fishermen, manufacturers and buyers work in close partnership to ensure that greater profitability is shared across the industry. Again, I inevitably think of Hebridean examples. In recent years, the marag—Stornoway black pudding—has capitalised in that way to some extent, as have the prawn fishing and processing industry and several successful smokeries. There are high-quality food and drink manufacturers in the Outer Hebrides that take advantage of the islands’ exceptional produce. That includes fresh and smoked seafood, meat, game, confectionary and jam. I will not continue indefinitely. Suffice it to say that producers are as varied as the Hebridean Brewing Company, Kallin Shellfish, Stag Bakeries, MacDuff Shellfish and Barratlantic. However, there is still more that we could do to bring some of our excellent produce to a wider public knowledge. As an example, I think of the crofting communities and Lewis lamb.
The food and drink sector in my constituency is growing, and it currently employs around 300 people. In 2012, it accounted for £18 million in gross value added by the islands’ economy. In many ways, the industry is closely related to the tourism sector in the Outer Hebrides, which was worth approximately £53 million in 2013.
Two of the most recent and successful small businesses in the islands make another point in their own way. They are both food and drink related, and I will name them without any favours having been sought from them. They are the Hebridean Mustard Company and the Hebridean Tea Store. I mention them because both are run by EU citizens—a fact that brings me seamlessly to my concluding point.
Forty percent of Scotland’s food and drink exports are destined for Europe, a fact that is not lost on Hebridean prawn fishermen, whose live exports of shellfish cannot afford to be delayed on international borders and who, as yet, have little clear explanation of how such a scenario can be avoided. Many Scottish products, including Stornoway black pudding and other products that have already been named in the debate, currently have EU protected food name status, which provides legal protection against imitation across the EU. As other members have said, that is not a trivial point. It is estimated that, on average, PFN status more than doubles a product’s value. It is far from clear how, outside the existing schemes, measures could successfully be taken to prevent imitation products from entering the market.
My constituency—like many others—provides lessons on why Scotland’s food industry relies equally on Scotland the brand and Europe the market. As a Parliament, we owe it to the industry to protect both.