Focus On Scotland: 20 May

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Focus On Scotland

Publishing: 20 May

Advertising deadline: 4 May

Submissions deadline: 28 April

Contact:Ellis Hawthorne (Ellis.Hawthorne@wrbm.com)

The Story

Scotland Food & Drink has unveiled an ambitious plan to double the size of the industry to £30bn by 2030. This could mean big wins for the country’s food & drink manufacturers. So, which players will be driving this boom in Scottish produce and with which products? Where are the country’s biggest and emerging export markets? What part does innovation have to play in this?

Key themes

Exports: This will be key to the feature. Scotland Food & Drink reported a record year for exports, growing by £421m to £5.5bn. We explore in detail the export markets for well-known Scottish products, including whisky and salmon, especially as fish & seafood recorded the largest growth. Which markets are struggling? Which ones present untapped opportunities and for which products? Are there any unusual products flying the flag in other countries?

Brexit: Exports to EU countries were worth £2.3bn to Scotland in 2016. What impact could Brexit (and a potential second Scottish referendum) have on this? What impact could rising prices have?

Trends: Over the past few years, a number of non-traditional Scottish foods are gathering pace, such as Scottish gin, seaweed and craft beer. What new products have emerged over the past year? Who’s tapping into that market? Which products are set to become the new face of Scotland?

Health innovation: Scots don’t have a great reputation when it comes to health, known for their deep-fried Mars bars and drunken munchy boxes. So, what are they doing to change this? Can we expect to see a raft of healthier innovation coming from the country?

Health: A third of children and two thirds of adults are overweight or obese, according to Food Standard Scotland, which recently launched a ‘Treat Free Tuesday’ campaign. So, what are the nation’s food and drink manufacturers doing to improve this? And how do the figures stack up?

The domestic market: This feature will pay close attention to the performance of Scotland’s domestic food & drink market over the past year, comparing the performance with the rest of the UK. Particular focus will be paid to how health trends such as the war on sugar are impacting performance.

Innovation: This will be key to this feature. We will be investigating new product development over the past year and what is in store for shoppers in 2017. We will be profiling eight of the most interesting launches in a separate innovation panel.

Scottish Food & Drink Excellence Awards: The Awards take place on 18th May, we look at who won and why.