Jim Paice, the UK's minister of state for agriculture and food, has reaffirmed the important role that the country's food and drink industry plays in making the country a successful world player, while backing the industry to help drive the UK's economic recovery.
Speaking at this week's Food & Drink Expo, the country's largest food and drink-focused expo with around 550 exhibitors, Paice pointed to the fact that the sector is responsible for over 3.5m jobs and 7 per cent of UK value added.
'We have a reawakened interest in the food and drink industry as part of Britain's economic recovery – it is the largest manufacturing sector in the UK with a gross added value of £24.6bn (€29bn),' he said. 'It plays a key role in driving strong and sustainable growth, particularly through exports and in developing its overseas markets.
'Food and drink exports from the UK in 2010 saw the sixth consecutive year of growth in value to £16bn (€19bn) and provisional figures for 2011 indicate that we will perform even better, breaking the £16.5bn (€19.7bn) mark.'
The government's recently-launched Exports Action Plan is expected to drive export growth in the farming, food and drink sector by opening markets and removing trade barriers; encouraging more small and medium-sized enterprises to explore overseas opportunities and shifting the focus of the sector towards the prospects of emerging economies where is the greatest future growth potential.
'We want to harness this strength and use it to the economic advantage of the whole country,' Paice added. 'We can maintain a thriving, sustainable and profitable UK food and drink sector that can compete with the best in the world.'
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