Scottish Food and Drink Fortnight

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 11 September 2019.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Emma Harper Emma Harper Scottish National Party

I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak in this evening’s important debate, and I congratulate my colleague Alasdair Allan on securing it.

Food and drink fortnight, which is organised by Scotland Food & Drink, is an excellent opportunity to showcase the best of Scottish produce—fae ferm tae fork. Scotland’s food and drink sector is world renowned for its provenance, its outstanding quality and its amazing diversity of delicious flavours. It is worth more than £14 billion to our economy and employs 115,000—and then some—people across Scotland, and that number continues to grow.

Every corner of Scotland has its own unique brand of food and drink, and the south-west of Scotland is nae exception. In my South Scotland region, we have outstanding local produce, from Galloway-breed beef and award-winning cheeses at the Ethical Dairy—which was mentioned—to Loch Ryan oysters from Stranraer, which I, too, will be enjoying along with Minister Gougeon at the third Stranraer oyster festival this weekend. We have huge companies, such as those that produce Seriously Strong Cheddar and Rowan Glen, and Arla Foods; one-woman companies such as Treats, Darling?; and even forward thinkers such as the Station House cookery school in Kirkcudbright, which does a lot of work with families and local producers.

We have many outstanding food and farm festivals, agricultural shows and farmers markets in the south-west that showcase outstanding local food and drink that are bursting with flavour and creativity.

I give a shout out to Graham Nichol and Niomi Brough, who are just two of the hard-working people behind the Dumfries and Kirkcudbright food festivals. Graham was the omelette-making champion in Dumfries and Galloway until this summer. I defeated him and took his crown, which I now have to defend on his ain turf.

Members might be surprised to learn that, in south-west Scotland, Garrocher tea garden is growing and blending tea, Professor Pods is growing chillies for his sauces, and we have a wide range of award-winning dairy produce, from amazing ice cream to specialist cheeses and yoghurt. We must not forget the world-famous Ayrshire tatties, which now have protected geographical indication status. We have local venison, a wide variety of lamb, hogget and mutton, and the Little Bakery, which won the prestigious world’s best Scotch pie award this year.

South-west Scotland also has the award-winning Sulwath brewery in Castle Douglas, which has been mentioned, and outstanding gin distillers, such as the Crafty distillery in Newton Stewart. I believe that I had a taste of Hills & Harbour gin with Mike Russell at an event in Parliament. We also have, of course, the newly refurbished and reopened Bladnoch distillery, whose reopening was described really well by Finlay Carson. I visited it on one of its other official opening days. Ninefold distillery, which is a new kid on the block, makes Dumfries and Galloway’s first rum. Galloway really does have it all.

Since 2008, we have seen Scots exports increase by 56 per cent. They reached over £7 billion last year, and our manufacturing growth rate for food and drink is twice that of the UK.

Supporting the workforce is key to unlocking the £30 billion potential of the sector—that is the Scottish Government’s target. Our farmers, fishers, growers, pickers and all those who work in our agricultural sector need to be supported.

I spent the summer recess visiting farms, attending agricultural events and food and drink events, and speaking to people on the front line. As colleagues have mentioned in the chamber, south-west Scotland has 48 per cent of Scotland’s dairy farms. I have talked about that previously. Many of their employees are EU citizens who have chosen to live and work in, and be essential contributing members of, our communities. South-west Scotland is one of the top food-producing areas, and those EU workers are understandably concerned about the UK Government’s actions towards EU workers.

In conclusion, I ask the cabinet secretary for assurances that he and the Scottish Government will continue to do all that they can to protect the sector and its hard-working people from the potential damage of a no-deal Brexit. I welcome food and drink fortnight and put on the record my thanks to all those in the sector and those who come to Scotland and choose to work in it.