Timely Review To Help Unlock Great Potential Of Our Fabulous Food & Drink
I welcome the decision by ministers Diane Dodds and Edwin Poots to establish an independent strategic review into the future of our crucially important agri-food industry. I do so on behalf the Food NI team and especially our 450 food and drink member companies.
We all look forward to working closely with Sir Peter Kendall, the chair, and the other members tasked by the two ministers to address the challenges facing the industry especially in the post-pandemic era.
We will do everything we can to assist the new strategy group to achieve the objective set by the ministers of unlocking “the new opportunities ahead to build a thriving, more sustainable, resilient and profitable agri-food sector”.
It’s essential that the undoubted potential of the industry to drive economic recovery post pandemic is effectively harnessed and as quickly as practicable. It is, after all, a £5 billion industry which exports a wide range of products to around 60 global markets and employs upwards of 100,000 people across a vast supply chain.
There is clearly a very strong case to review the current state and future of the agri-food sector against the background of the past year which has seen the sector rise impressively to the unprecedented challenges it has faced due to the awful pandemic.
In particular, the lockdowns in hospitality had a profound impact on food and drink processing, requiring many processors which had depended on supplying restaurants, cafes and hotels to pivot towards a greater engagement in retailing. I’ve been very favourably impressed by how many companies of all sizes and sectors responded in terms of revised marketing techniques and the introduction of innovative food experiences for consumers here and further afield.
We saw smaller enterprises pitching for – and winning – listings with major supermarkets in Britain and the Republic of Ireland. And more local products from smaller producers are now listed by online retailers Amazon and Ocado.
We were able to help many of these companies through our engagement with our colleagues in Invest NI which deployed significant resources to help companies win new business in Britain, the Republic of Ireland and beyond especially the US.
Other substantial changes in the business environment faced by our companies flowed from Brexit and the subsequent Irish Sea Protocol from Northern Ireland remaining within the EU. There is a pressing need to help our companies, especially smaller enterprises, prosper in these different and sometimes perplexing trading arrangements.
“The group is also charged to provide “a sharp, focused review with recommendations for both the industry and Executive departments informing decision making and policy development”.
I am confident the group realises how important it is to engage with the industry on a collaborative basis to come up with effective measures to improve productivity; enhancing economic and environmental sustainability, including carbon footprint; reducing access to migrant labour; Increasing the levels of innovation and R&D; addressing changing market demands for food products and opportunities; a possible regional branding; and the development of an independent UK Trade policy.
This is quite an action list for the experts to tackle, but the industry deserves the best possible outcomes to allow it to unlock future potential.
