Defra cooks up plan to boost food exports
29 Jan 2016
The government has established a new unit to raise the value of British food exports to £6 billion by 2020.
The 'Great British Food Unit' will bring together experts in exports and investment to help more local businesses to sell their produce around the globe.
Its long term goal is to match France and Germany, which each export more than double the UK in terms of the value of food and drink, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
Participating food manufacturers will be offered practical support from international UK trade and investment teams and British Embassies, who will be working to promote British food and drink abroad.
British brands such as Weetabix, Cadbury chocolate and Yorkshire Tea have already made substantial inroads into export markets, and according to Defra, supporting more British companies could generate “an additional 5,000 jobs in food and drink manufacturing”.
The unit will also support further Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the food industry which it said stood at a record £60 billion in 2014 – amounting to nearly a third of all FDI assets in UK manufacturing.
In 2012, Bright Food – which is China’s second largest food manufacturing company – bought 60% of breakfast cereal manufacturer, Weetabix for £1.2 billion, to meet growing consumer demand in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Nanjing.
Weetabix cereal is now available in 80 countries, including Africa, Germany, Spain and North America, says Defra.
“It is vital for our economic future that we make British food and farming all it can be – over the next five years we will do that by backing big business, supporting punchy start-ups and embracing our rich food heritage,” said environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss, during a visit to the Weetabix factory.
The launch of the new unit coincides with the government’s recent pledge to make 2016 as the Year of Great British Food.
“The government’s new Great British Food Unit… could be a real game changer for UK food and drink exports,” said Ian Wright CBE, director general of the Food and Drink Federation.
“Helping this country’s 6,000+ producers, many of them small enterprises, to compete in the fiercely competitive global marketplace will help us meet our ambitious target to grow value added exports by a third to £6bn by 2020.”
Other Defra initiatives include:
-Securing and maintaining access for UK meat and dairy products to markets like China, Africa and South America.
-Working to treble the number of apprenticeships in the food and drink industry.
-Increasing the number of Protected Food Names from 64 to 200, while working to promote the 64 foods already granted European protected status, including Rutland Bitter, Cornish Pasties and Swaledale Cheese.
