Scotland must invest now for a post-brexit economy

The food and drink industry can lead innovation and skills development, says Robert Graham

Within the UK and the EU, seismic shifts are taking place. With so much uncertainty, it is easy to understand why that is an unsettling prospect.

We have a brief but important window to create opportunity. Opportunity that would see Scotland benefit in transformational ways: through increased job drivers, stronger international trading relationships and economic resilience.

How positively Scotland is viewed on the international stage became apparent to me earlier this year at Gulfoods, one of the world’s largest food and hospitality events. Here, Graham’s the Family Dairy won the Dairy Innovation Award for Protein 22, a high-protein snack range. It is this approach towards research and development that is helping us break into new export markets and secure more UK listings.

But how can we stop the economic uncertainty of Brexit? Scotland’s larder may hold the answer. Food and drink exports reached a record high of £5.5billion in 2016, yet are we making the most of our potential?

Dairy is perfectly positioned to support job creation and wellbeing programmes at a global scale. In doing so, the sector can grow Scotland’s GDP, forge career pathways and back education programmes.

Yet Great Britain is the world’s third largest net importer of dairy by value. Ninety per cent of all spreadable butter sold in Scotland is not produced here; the figure is the same for yoghurt. Brexit could see the World Trade Organisation’s tariff import levy of 36 per cent applied to dairy products. The challenge and opportunity is how we mitigate the risk of such tariffs through measures which grow our economy. We need to think big by growing Scotland’s domestic production capacity now. We can develop and sell more home-grown products, support businesses and job creation.

As a third-generation family business, we have grown by continually investing in three things: people, brands and modern production facilities. I believe these values apply equally to the Scottish economy.

However, rebalancing our industrial strategy needs to come swiftly. Increasing domestic processing capacity will be the pipeline for new products, boosting innovation, delivering skills development and improving Scotland’s exports. All are central to building a resilient post-brexit economy.

Our company is poised to help drive this forward with a proposed national dairy production, research and education facility in Stirling. Should our housing development with Mactaggart & Mickel Homes be approved, we will not only deliver much needed housing and facilities, we will also facilitate a step change in investment.

Scotland’s food and drink industry has the ambition and energy to drive investment in skills, research and modern production facilities, to enable a positive outcome to the challenges and opportunities which lie ahead. ● Robert Graham is MD of Graham’s the Family Dairy.