Focus On Wales: 17 October

Focus On: Wales by Kevin White

Publishing: 17 October

Advertising deadline: 7 October

Download the synopsis

Submissions deadline: 1 October

The story

Wales’s food and drink industry has been firing on all cylinders. It hit a record turnover of £7.5bn last November, smashing the Welsh government’s target of £7bn – and doing so a year early. But then the pandemic took hold, and a collapse in foodservice hit a number of key sectors. So how have they weathered a tumultuous 2020? What support has it received from the Welsh government and, with work now underway on a new strategy for the sector for the next decade, what’s to come?

Key themes

Turnover: how did the Welsh food and drink achieve its record sales target? Which suppliers stood out the most? How? Which products were most successful?

Momentum: what are the next targets for Wales’s food and drink suppliers? How will they achieve them?

Covid: what size of knock did the country’s sector take during the pandemic? Who came out of it in best shape – and who didn’t survive?

Brexit: Wales’ environment minister, Lesley Griffiths has expressed frustrations over the impasse in post-Brexit trade negotiations, and warned the lack of progress was “hugely concerning” for Welsh food and drink businesses. Why?

Food standards: proposals for a UK internal market a “power grab” could see devolved powers return to Westminster and force Wales to accept lower standards on food production, some fear. What are the implications for Welsh suppliers?

Innovations: we identify four new products or product ranges that have not appeared in The Grocer before including launch date, rsp and image of each