Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support large scale food processing.
The UK food processing industry is a highly competitive and successful industry, supplying both domestic markets and exporting overseas. Defra works across Government and in partnership with the sector in a variety of ways to support industry to improve its productivity and facilitate growth. This includes funding research and development to support new innovation and working to support new export opportunities for our world class food and drink products, including in priority markets such as China, Japan and USA.
The Food and Drink Sector Council is an industry-led partnership with Government which represents the entire farm to fork food chain. The Council’s aim is to boost the UK’s productivity and secure the UK’s position as a global leader in affordable, safe, sustainable and high-quality food and drink. The Council has a range of key priorities to support this aim, including working groups on agricultural productivity, and skills and workforce development.