Meeting of the Parliament 16 May 2019
I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests, which mentions my farming and fish farming interests and the fact that I am a non-executive director of Murray Income Trust, which is a publicly listed company with food and drink investments.
I welcome the opportunity to talk about Scotland’s food and drink industry. I pay tribute to the sector, which is one of the bastions of the Scottish economy and is highly significant. In that sense, I agree with the cabinet secretary’s warm words in support of the sector and the people who work in it. As a Highlands and Islands MSP, I know only too well the importance and value of the products that we produce, both locally and nationally, and the important jobs that come from the industry, which support many people in the region and beyond.
Food and drink are Scotland’s largest international export industry, with the manufacture of food and beverages accounting for exports that are worth around £6 billion, according to the latest figures. As we know, the industry’s overall value is around £15 billion, and we have long supported the Scottish Government’s ambition to double that value to £30 billion by 2030. That ambition is right, proper and achievable.
Unlike the Scottish National Party Government, we see Brexit as an opportunity to aid that ambition. Undoubtedly, the Brexit process is proving to be challenging. We want to see a deal pass that respects the referendum result and allows us to trade with other countries, boosting our own goods in the process while maintaining trade and positive co-operation with our friends in the European Union. The existing withdrawal agreement would allow us to do that, and it is clear from the wide support that it commands across Scottish industry that it is the most preferable outcome, which respects the vote. It is an outcome that would allow us to grow our burgeoning food and drink sector.
Let me remind the cabinet secretary what the sector said of that deal. The Scotch Whisky Association, which talks on behalf an industry with an export value to Scotland of £4.7 billion, said:
“On balance, the draft Withdrawal Agreement and accompanying Political Declaration ... stand up well against the Scotch Whisky industry’s Brexit priorities.”
NFU Scotland said that the deal,
“while not perfect, will ensure that there are no hard barriers on the day we leave the European Union, and will allow trade in agricultural goods and UK food & drink to continue throughout the transition period largely as before. This opportunity needs to be taken.”
Perhaps the cabinet secretary thinks that they are wrong.
Of course, we agree that a no-deal Brexit should be avoided, and we agree with the industry that it presents a risk. However, we are not the proponents of that outcome. We want a deal and we support the deal that is on the table, which the EU has said is the only deal on the table. The reality is that it is other parties, such as the SNP, that have wanted Brexit to fail from day 1 and are risking a no-deal Brexit becoming a reality.