UK NEWS

SCOTLAND’S PRODUCE A BIG UK HIT

TASTY: Scottish food is throwing off it's unhealthy image

Saturday June 27,2009

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SCOTTISH food and drink is getting more popular with shoppers UK-wide, with new figures showing a sales jump of more than a fifth in two years.

More Scots are also using home-grown produce, with an 18 per cent rise in sales north of the Border.

Top seller is Scotch beef, which saw sales grow by 12 per cent.

Sales of Scotch lamb have also risen by 25 per cent across the UK since 2007.

Brands which are proving increasingly popular include Baxters, which is famous for its soup range, Rowan Glen, which makes cheese and yoghurt, and Mackays jams.

Food exports to countries outside the UK also increased by 16 per cent between early 2007 and early 2009.

The figures were released by the Scottish Government as it unveiled the next steps in a strategy which is designed to strengthen Scotland’s food and drink industry.

Rural affairs secretary Richard Lochhead, who launched the plan at the Royal Highland Show in Ingliston, Edinburgh, said that one retailer had told him a Saltire flag on the label of Scottish tomatoes had helped boost sales by up to 25 per cent.

Mr Lochhead said: “Despite the economic downturn there is much to be proud of and we are aiming to build on this success story.

“With this feelgood factor and the wealth of talent which is at our disposal, the time is right to create a food and drink revolution.” The increase in Scottish brands across the UK in the past two years was worth £270million.

The strategy for the food and drink manufacturing sector will seek to increase sales by a third to £10billion by 2017.

Measures include more efforts to get Scottish food onto menus in hotels, restaurants, cafes and pubs and extra support for farmers’ markets and local food initiatives. But Liam McArthur, rural affairs spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, described the plan as “long overdue and lacking in detail”.

He added: “Without more effective measures to address the decline in sheep and cattle numbers across Scotland it seems inconceivable that Ministers will be able to achieve their target of growing Scotland’s food industry.”

Scottish Tory leader Annabel Goldie welcomed the increase in sales, but highlighted the public’s concerns over rising food inflation.

She said: “Choosing fresh, locally produced food is one way in which each of us can help to shape a better future for our country.

“We would like to see an increase in publicly procured local food for consumption in our schools, our local authority canteens, our hospitals and our prisons.”

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