The Welsh Government has launched a consultation on a new action plan for the food and drinks industry, which it hopes will increase sector turnover and improve sustainability.

‘Delivering Growth: An Action Plan for the Food and Drinks Industry 2014-2020’ proposes to increase turnover in the food and drinks industry by 30 per cent by 2020 and help businesses ‘achieve efficiencies in energy and water, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sustain biodiversity’.

Speaking about the plan, Minister for Natural Resources and Food, Alun Davies said: “Food production is so important and has an impact on nearly every element of our lives. It affects our economy, our climate, our diet and health, our education and ability to learn, and there is no doubt that it is a major part of our culture and tourism offer.

“We have designed this plan to ensure that Wales’ food industry reaches its full potential. That is why it includes a particular focus on delivering green growth and creating jobs throughout the food chain.

“We already have a good story to tell on food and drink, with Wales having seen a six per cent growth in food and drinks sales last year and a combined turnover for agriculture, fishing and food manufacture of over £5.2 billion, however we can and must do more.

“I want our final action plan to set out ambitious but achievable targets and allow us to easily measure our performance against them.”

Action plan details

A consultation on the proposed plan was launched yesterday (2 December) and outlines the three central themes for the plan:

• forming a Food and Drinks Federation ‘to offer leadership to the sector’ (akin to the Dairy Task Force or Retail Forum);
• developing a ‘new identity’ for Welsh food and drink that will support trade and market development; and
• focusing on training and up-skilling throughout the food chain

The Welsh Government has said that it hopes the establishment of a Welsh Food & Drink Federation (WFDF) will ‘achieve closer working between the food industry and government’ and ‘be influential people representing the food chain and related stakeholder interests’.

Specifically, the WFDF would ‘provide leadership to a network of specialist interests, scope/develop market opportunities, enhance knowledge and understanding of agri-food supply chains, develop industry benchmarking and advise on training and skills’.

In terms of building a new identity for the sector, the action plan asks stakeholders on how the country can build on ‘Food & Drink Wales’ as an identity. This follows on from feedback from businesses and stakeholders during 2012 that found branding for Welsh food and drink to not be an effective tool at trade events, ‘as it was confusing and not immediately clear what it actually represented’.

The Welsh Government also identified that ‘there are more low skilled workers in the food and drink sector in Wales than in any other nation’s workforce in the UK’ and as such, is proposing the industry establish a ‘collaborative training network of sector-approved training providers’, scope ‘competency frameworks to incorporate leadership and management training’ and provide ‘holistic training plans for individual businesses and personal development plans for workers’.

Aside from the three main themes, the Welsh Government has identified seven priority areas to ‘drive sustainable growth’. These are:

Market Development & Growth

The value of the Welsh Food and Farming Priority Sector has an annual turnover of £5.2 billion. The plan aims to grow output by 30 per cent to £6.7 billion by 2020, and an interim target of 10 per cent by the end of 2016. Over the same time period growth in Gross Value Added is targeted at 10 per cent to £1.4 billion.

The consultation proposes to achieve through measures including:

• establishing ‘much improved’ industry facts, figures and baseline data to ensure targets are ’realistic, measureable and comparable with competitor nations’;
• implementing ‘key account management’ with each of the largest food and drink businesses in Wales;
• developing more Protected Food Name products;
• developing a ‘toolkit’ of support to encourage businesses to source locally produced food and drink;
• encouraging public sector procurement of Welsh food and drink through ‘removing barriers and supporting producers’; and
• developing an annual showcase to ‘demonstrate and reward the best of Welsh food and drink produce’.

Food, Culture, Heritage & Tourism

According to the action plan, developing links between the food and tourism sectors provides ‘the potential to maximise the amount of income retained in the area with a resulting multiplier effect on the Welsh Economy’.

Proposed actions to achieve this include:

• encouraging Welsh caterers to use (more) Welsh produce by ‘dealing with barriers and taking advantage of opportunities’;
• Identifying all food culture ‘partners’ and collaborate with sector partners for joint promotional activity;
• Developing a joint plan of action with Visit Wales to deliver both food and tourism benefits;
• Revising the process and criteria for providing financial support to food culture, tourism and heritage initiatives; and
• Working with Visit Wales to develop a joint approach to Welsh food and tourism awards.

Climate Change

As part of the government’s target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in areas of devolved competence by three per cent per annum from 2011, the action plan specifies that for the food and drink sector:

• all financial support [including Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 (RDP)] for food businesses must include a measureable environmental objective as part of, or alongside, a business growth objective; and
• the government will provide more assistance to businesses to reduce their environmental footprint through further developing the ‘roadmap’ support measure.

Supply Chain Efficiency

To increase supply chain efficiency, the action plan proposes:

• expanding mentoring support to more businesses;
• addressing skills gaps in the industry through mainstreaming the Food & Drink Sector Councils competencies;
• ‘fully implementing’ the recommendations of the Food and Drink Skills Project; and
• increasing awareness of the range of support available to food businesses.

Integration: Government and Supply Chain Collaboration;

To help bring food under the government branch so that it has a ‘central role in promoting rural regeneration and redevelopment and improving the links between rural and urban environments and communities’, government proposes it:

• works closely with the Welsh Food and Drink Federation and Wales Retail Consortium to ensure food policy is fit for purpose;
• ensure food policy is fully considered in relation to all Welsh Government policy;
• work closely with the Grocery Code Adjudicator to ensure ‘fair play’ throughout the chain;
• ensure that the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 integrates across all government departments; and
• develop the Supply Chain Efficiencies scheme to focus more strongly on chain integration.

Food Assurance & Resilience

Following on from the horsemeat scandal, the Welsh Government is proposing to introduce the following measures to improve traceability and confidence in the food chain:

• form a ‘Food Security - Industry Food Assurance Network’, under the Welsh Food and Drink Federation umbrella, with public and private sector participation to assess and manage food chain risks on an on-going basis; and
• promote the adoption of recognised industry food safety assurances and accreditations by food businesses.

Health & Social Impacts

To reduce the levels of diet-related ill health and premature death, the action plan proposes that:

• the Welsh Government publicises and promotes healthy eating generally and with a focus in schools;
• there is improved access to, and affordability, of healthy foods through reviewing and building on existing initiatives including Community Food Co-operatives, Community Growing and Food Banks; and
• government works with food businesses to encourage healthier product development and healthier formulations (e.g. reduced sugar and salt).

Interested parties have until 3 March 2014 to respond and the final plan is expected to be published in ‘spring 2014’.

Read more about the ‘Delivering Growth: An Action Plan for the Food and Drinks Industry 2014-2020’.