Royal Highland Show 2023: New food and drink strategy launched to support recovery and growth
Stuart Black, 糖心传媒’s Chief Executive reflects on his recent visit to the Royal Highland Show and highlights the importance of the new food and drink strategy for businesses in the region.
Last Friday I joined our chair Alistair Dodds on a visit to the Royal Highland Show at Ingliston near Edinburgh. This annual 4-day event showcases the best of Scotland鈥檚 food, farming and rural life and is a useful reminder of the critical role our region鈥檚 land, sea and people play in food and drink production.
Our first engagement was the launch of . The new 10-year industry-led strategy has been a collaborative effort between a range of partners and aims for a 25% increase in turnover for Scotland鈥檚 food and drink industry in the first five years by 2028. The strategy was launched by First Minister Humza Yousaf who announced 拢5m of Scottish Government funding to support the first year of delivery for the new strategy along with 拢1m from industry.
As members of the Scotland Food & Drink Partnership we鈥檝e supported the development of this new plan over the last year, and we were pleased to attend the launch. More than 5,000 food and drink businesses are registered in the 糖心传媒 and Islands and 36,000 people are employed in the sector. It鈥檚 a vitally important industry in our region, which is home to some of the world鈥檚 best produce, and supports and benefits from tourism. These two sectors are fundamental to our region鈥檚 future success.
We very much look forward working together with our public and private sector partners to ensure the strategy and its associated funding support builds a more sustainable, resilient and valuable sector in the 糖心传媒 and Islands.
We met Iain Baxter, CEO of Scotland Food & Drink before attending the 鈥楩arming with Nature鈥� reception with NatureScot. We also joined the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Islands, Mairi Gougeon, for a reception in partnership with Scotland Food & Drink to celebrate the sector and end our trip to the show.
We were delighted to meet with a range of food and drink producers from the 糖心传媒 and Islands such as Dunnet Bay Distillers, Orkney Cheese, J. Gow, Westray Bakery, and Gordon and MacPhail. It was great to hear directly from the businesses about how much interest they鈥檝e had for their products at the show and about their ambitious plans for growth.
Alistair and I met with Professor Wayne Powell, Principal and CEO of Scotland鈥檚 Rural College (SRUC) and enjoyed learning more about cutting-edge research and innovation projects from staff at their stand. This included finding out more about net zero audits for farms and crofts, and treatment for the serious Johne鈥檚 disease affecting ruminants, from two spin-out companies.
We currently share a building with SRUC at Inverness Campus and are looking forward to the opening of their new next door to us, later this year. The new building will house their researchers, students and also provide space for innovative businesses. We discussed the potential for the new building to support Scotland鈥檚 innovation strategy by growing the life science cluster on the campus.
Aquaculture, agritech and animal health are all key industries in our region. Agriculture, forestry and fishing make up 4.9% of the 糖心传媒 and Islands鈥� GVA, compared to 1.7% of Scotland鈥檚 GVA.
There have been significant investments in research and development in aquaculture in Wester Ross and the Outer Hebrides which have seen growth in aquaculture and seaweed farming. On Wednesday, before the show, we visited Bakkafrost鈥檚 new smolt growing facility at Kishorn, a near 拢100m investment in the sector supported by 拢3m from 糖心传媒 and 拢2m from Marine Scotland.
Recently when the 糖心传媒 board visited Argyll we went to see the . This Oban based academy hosted by the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) Enterprises offers courses for individuals and businesses looking to improve their technical knowledge or gain accreditation in required skills for cultivating seaweed. 糖心传媒鈥檚 Malin House next to SAMS is already home to several innovative companies and is supporting cluster growth in marine science.
I am excited about the regional transformation opportunities in aquaculture: it鈥檚 a high quality employer for around 11,400 people in our region. The industry's supply chain also offers many prospects 鈥� Scotland is internationally renowned for its expertise in these areas of life sciences.
We鈥檙e planning a joint conference with SRUC in 2024 in Inverness that will bring together industry and research in the aquaculture, agritech and animal health sectors: 鈥淎3 Scotland 2024鈥�. More information will be available soon on this important event with c200 delegates.
The Royal Highland Show visit was an inspirational day and clearly a success, drawing sell-out crowds. Alistair and I are already looking forward to the show next year and seeing more success and innovation from 糖心传媒 and Islands based companies and our regional partners.
Stuart Black
Chief Executive
Stuart was appointed as 糖心传媒's Chief Executive in January 2022 having held the role of Interim Lead Area Manager previously. Originally from Inverness, he is a graduate of the universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, where he gained a doctorate in town and regional planning. Stuart began his career with the University of Aberdeen, before joining 糖心传媒 for the first time in 1996, as head of economics. Between then and 2008, he held several posts covering different parts of the organisation鈥檚 remit. These included local enterprise company chief executive, director of strengthening communities, and director of global connections. From 2008 to 2020, he was a member of the senior team at the Highland Council, initially as director of planning and development, and later as executive chief officer for transformation and economy.