Scottish food and drink businesses, including direct competitors, have been urged to work closer together to overcome growing barriers to international trade and strengthen the sector’s export resilience.
The call came at a Scottish food and drink export roundtable held this week – just hours before the major news for whisky firms with the dropping of US tariffs. However, the announcement could have much wider and positive repercussions, by opening the door for increased trade across the whole sector.
The roundtable event was hosted by Peel Ports Group in Glasgow and brought together producers and sector leaders, including Scotland Food & Drink, to examine how Scotland can improve routes to market, especially to North America.
The discussion focused on the potential to aggregate exports to open up routes for growth, especially to the hundreds of small to medium businesses in Scotland’s food and drink sector that lack the scale to exploit export opportunities on their own. As Scotland’s biggest export, whisky could generate the scale and momentum required to make this a reality, especially with the tariffs news.
The food and drink sector is one of Scotland’s most important economic contributors, supporting jobs across manufacturing, agriculture, seafood, whisky, logistics, ports and supply chain services. It also has a strong international reputation, with Scottish products recognised in major overseas markets for quality and provenance.
Jim McSporran, Clydeport Port Director at Peel Ports Group, said:
“The challenge, and the opportunity, that emerged strongly from today is whether the sector can act together in areas where collaboration makes commercial sense. Companies will always compete on product, brand and customers, but there is clear scope to work more collectively on the practical barriers that affect everyone, including cost, reliability, capacity and access to market.
“In particular, it’s clear Scotland’s strongest export – whisky – could provide the baseload to make a direct service from Scotland to the States a viable option. That in turn could benefit the whole economy for existing and potential export businesses.”
Stephen Currie, Managing Director of R&W Scott in Carluke, which makes premium bakery products, said: “One of the biggest barriers for businesses like ours is distribution. It’s not just about shipping the goods overseas to our customers. Sometimes our imported raw ingredients can be delayed for days at a time. We need to work together in the sector, with honesty about our volumes and markets, if we want to achieve more export success. There’s huge potential to grow our business if we can get this right and I’m sure it will be the same for other Scottish companies.”
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Alastair Dobson, Managing Director of Arran Dairies and Taste of Arran, said: “The biggest threat is inertia and doing what has always been done. We’ve got the goods and we’ve got the markets. The challenge is the cost and time of the bit in-between. We need to collaborate better and join the dots between exporters and supply chain providers. That can be complex, which is where AI and digital platforms can play a very important role.”
Figures from Scotland Food & Drink show it contributes £15 billion in economic value, with exports doubling over the past decade. However, industry leaders have previously warned that reputation and previous successes will not be enough to secure future growth if businesses cannot move products to market efficiently, reliably and competitively.
Participants also identified the resilience, financial stability and sustainability benefits from a direct shipping service, allowing companies to increase revenue and profitability.
