SAC Food & Drink Team Update - SAC (Scottish Agricultural College)

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Scotland?s food and drink industry [including agriculture] is currently worth some ?11.3 billion annually to the country?s economy. Through the VAS programme and others, the SAC Food & Drink Team assists Scottish Government develop the sector by working with food and drink producers.

One key activity is assistance with Food and Drink Showcases, supporting va rious activities. Already this year SAC Food & Drink have facilitated three such events. One, the SAC Organic Producer Conference, has already been reported in SAC News, these others have not.

The annual, three day Farm & More Conference, held this year in Scotland, welcomed about 450 delegates to Edinburgh. Farm & More celebrates diversity through farm retail and local foods industry, highlighting its resilience, creativity and energy. It demonstrates how the sector is responding powerfully to these challenging times with new ideas, discussion and debate provoked by speakers from inside the sector and outwith it.

The SAC Food & Drink team provided background information for the delegates who were from all over the UK. They liaised with the thirteen tour hosts involved with the ?Fife?s Fabulous Food & Retail Tour?, the ?Retail Destinations Tour?, the ?Inside Farm Retail Tour? and the ?Food & Production Tour?. During the conference several of the team chaired some of the talks covering Business Development, Farmers? Markets, Food Service and Added Value, Farm Attractions, Marketing and Selling and ?Move those Numbers? [benchmarking].?

?Celebrating Our Success? was the title of the Scottish Government Conference held in Perth recently to celebrate ?the achievements of people the length and breadth of the country, from community groups to industry who help bring the National Food and Drink Policy policy to life and make its achievements real?.

The key conference themes were Food, Education and Innovation within Scotland?s food and drink industry. There were networking and marketing opportunities, with many different organisations and nineteen local food and drink producers who were showcasing their produce to both delegates and the public.?SAC Food & Drink facilitated these opportunities which offered a wide array of produce from ice cream, beer and meat to chutney, bread, cheese and preserves.?

Speaking at the conference, Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead pledged ?2 million over three years to help every Scottish school child understand more about the food they eat and how it impacts on their health and on the environment. An expert group, made up of industry and education representatives, will steer the three-year programme and provide advice on attracting private investment to add further value.

Read the Scottish Government 'Food education on the menu' article.

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Source: http://www.sac.ac.uk/news/currentnews/fooddrinkupdate/

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