Food and drink
In 2018, food and drink made up:
- 20.7% of Scotland’s international exports (£6,960 million)
- 9% of Scotland’s UK exports (£4.5 billion)
The food and drink sector covers a range of activities, such as:
- farming
- fishing
- aquaculture
- making products, for example: smoked salmon, whisky
How Scotland’s food and drink exports have changed since 2002
Between 2002 and 2018 Scotland’s food and drink exports increased:
- internationally from £3.2 billion to £6.9 billion
- to the rest of the UK from £3.1 billion to £4.5 billion
Where we can sell more
A Trading Nation used evidence to work out where Scotland could sell the most in future.
This evidence shows where:
- there’s a large or growing demand for imports
- Scotland’s exporting less than other, similar countries
The similar countries are Finland, Norway, Denmark and Ireland.
Countries where there’s a large or growing demand for food and drink imports
Where Scotland’s currently exporting less than similar countries
- Netherlands
- Switzerland
- Norway
- Poland
- Belgium
- China
- Italy
- Australia
What we're going to do
As part of the Scotland Food and Drink Export Plan, the public sector and industry co-fund market specialists in 15 countries.
This helps to support:
- Scotland Food and Drink’s approach to exporting premium products in retail and food service
- mentoring and matching companies through the Export Collaboration Charter and the First Minister’s Export Challenge
- industry in making trade agreements
You can find more information on Scotland’s food and drink sector in A Trading Nation.