Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Quality of British food needs telling to the world
A Government-backed drive to open up new global markets for British farm produce is long overdue, Bridgwater and West Somerset MP Ian LiddellGrainger tells Environment Secretary Steve Barclay
DEAR Steve, I was delighted to read this week that we are stoking up the fire under the food export drive and that the agri-food attachés have been back here looking at what might conceivably be added to the list of produce on our global stall.
Because it’s about time we really did start announcing to the rest of the world what fabulous foods the UK can now offer.
Sadly in the past a lot of countries haven’t wanted to touch us with a barge pole because of the enduring stigma of first BSE and then footand-mouth, both of which set meat export sales back by many, many years.
Long months after BSE had all been sorted and dealt with, continental restaurants were still displaying the country of origin (never the UK, of course) next to beef dishes on their menus by way of reassuring the punters the scoff was safe to munch.
We have elevated production and management systems so thoroughly that we should never – with luck – go through such an appalling animal health crisis again, though when one is dealing with viruses which can be transmitted by insects one can never be sure, of course.
What I am sure of, living where I do, is that the quality and range of home-produced food and drink has never looked more impressive.
My particular interest, as you might know, is in the cider industry where there have been some astonishing developments and innovations over the last couple of decades, making us without doubt the global centre of cider production.
But similar entrepreneurial zeal has driven other sectors as well and the range and quality of food and drink products is now being reflected in the catering sector. I don’t know if you have time to watch programmes such as Masterchef but it has revealed what a magnet this country has become for overseas chefs, drawn here to work because of our hugely diverse food culture and the raw materials that are available.
This is a success story that really needs trumpeting because while hospitality professionals might recognise our new status, we are still not regarded in the eyes of so much of the rest of the world as anything other than a country where we exist on roast beef and fish and chips.
So as the attachés have been trudging round the country this week meeting everyone from whisky producers to egg farmers and meat processors, I trust they will have picked up on the new standards of excellence that producers are now aspiring to and the outstanding quality with which their products are imbued.
There has been a remarkable turnround in the British food and drink industry in the last 40 or so years and it’s high time we began shouting that from the rooftops all round the world.