It was really sad to see Food from Britain, on its website this week, calling plaintively for "expressions of interest from organisations in the private sector that might wish to take on elements of FFB's business - [including] the licensing of the FFB brand". Let's hope the efforts of John Adams and Lady Sylvia Jay pay off. As we've reported in earlier issues, it's also in discussions with the Food & Drink Federation, but relying on the private sector to help small companies seems like an appalling abrogation of duty by the government when export sales in 2007 were £11.6bn, or 5.3% of total exports. To say they've been dealt a bum deal is an understatement. As Lady Jay tells The Grocer in an exclusive interview (see page 40), only in December FFB was offered assurances by Defra that it had a "continuing and important future". Some future. FFB has been forced to conduct its own fire sale. To add to the pathos, in June it will have to present the options to Defra, the very architect of its current predicament. And how ironic that Defra should pull FFB's funding just as international development minister Gareth Thomas introduces a £2m retail fund to encourage retailers to improve their sourcing of products from Africa. It makes no sense that the government should help suppliers abroad gain a foothold in our market while giving so little help to small British suppliers looking to export - especially when we're talking about an industry that represents the largest contributor to Britain's ever-diminishing manufacturing base. As a final insight into the government's spending priorities, this week I saw a policeman driving a sporty Renault convertible. Money well spent, I'd say.
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