Scotland's food and drink manufacturers have been told they must not be distracted by the short-term issues created by the foot and mouth disaster. Geoffrey John, chairman of the Scottish Food and Drink Industry Strategy Group, said the industry north of the border had set itself ambitious targets to grow sales, excluding whisky, from £4.2bn to £7.4bn by 2010. It plans to triple exports and more than double its added value business in the process. And he told a conference in Edinburgh: "We must not, under any circumstances, be deviated from our preparation for the future. We have to deal with these short-term issues, but we must always keep our eye on the longer game to grow our business effectively and chase these targets." And he urged suppliers to take advantage of the "considerable opportunities" open to the industry. The group John chairs was set up to implement the strategy devised for the industry by Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise in the wake of their cluster analysis work of the past two or three years. He said there were a number of projects under way that would benefit suppliers, including its Loadshare scheme to help smaller firms share distribution and so cut logistics costs. Initiatives in the pipeline include Food Facts which will be launched next month as part of the work being done to develop a marketing centre for the industry. "This is a hugely valuable tool that will give quantitative information to people who are about to invest and incipient entrepreneurs," said John. He is also working with Alan Hardie, managing director of Paterson Arran, to set up a venture capital fund for food and drink. While John stressed it was early days, he is clearly excited about the idea. "The fund could make available capital and would be managed by people who understand and are empathetic to our industry. "This work would help to develop the greater entrepreneurial spirit in the industry. If we are to achieve our growth targets we must not only develop existing companies but stimulate the creation of new ones." {{NEWS }}