Food and Drink Wales Industry Board - Chair's Update December 2022

As we near the end of another tumultuous year, let me start on a positive note with things we can celebrate!

In November, for the first time in their 22-year history, the BBC Food and Farming awards came to Cardiff which gave us a chance to spotlight our wonderful Welsh Food and Drink industry with key influencers and consumers from across the UK. At the same time, Wales also hosted the World Cheese Awards when over 4000 international cheeses competed for a plethora of highly coveted awards. To me, these both provide evidence that Welsh Food & Drink is now centre stage on the global food scene!

Welsh Leeks secures international protection

Wales’ national vegetable and emblem, the Welsh Leek, is now officially protected as it gains PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) UK GI status.

It becomes the third new Welsh product to achieve the highly sought-after UK GI status, following on from Gower Salt Marsh Lamb and Cambrian Mountains Lamb.

Sparkling future for Welsh wine following strategy launch

A first-of-its-kind strategy has been launched to set the future of the Welsh wine industry into focus over the next twelve years and increase the sector’s current value by 10-fold to reach £100 million by 2035.

Developed at a pivotal time for Welsh vineyards, with the support of the Welsh Government’s Drinks Cluster, the industry-led strategy is designed to ensure Wales builds on its emerging reputation as an experimental producer of varying wines, following some impressive successes in recent years that have been rewarded with a number of international awards.

Building relationships in the Asian food and drink markets

A delegation of Welsh food centres, led by the Welsh Government’s Food and Drink Division, has visited Singapore to attend the Growth Asia Summit 2022 and meet with Singaporean and international food and drink businesses with the aim of promoting Wales as a destination for their investment.

Bridging the Gap to Sustainable Scale Up Opportunities

A year on from its inception, members of the Sustainable Scale Up Cluster special interest group, Bridging the Gap, reflect on how forming the group has benefitted its members in a series of videos as part of Black History Month.

Single-Use Plastic Products Bill

How businesses should prepare for the bans

Why are we doing this?

We want Wales to be free from unnecessary single-use plastics (SUP). By banning or restricting the supply of commonly littered products we will avoid leaving a toxic plastic legacy for future generations to deal with. It will also help us respond to the climate and nature emergencies.

Food and Drink Expo 2023

Recruitment is now underway to exhibit with the Welsh Government under the Food and Drink Wales banner at NEC, Birmingham 24 – 26 April 2023.

Please note the deadline for receiving your application form is 30th January 2023.

Trade Development Visit to Saudi Arabia

You are invited to participate in a food and drink trade development visit to Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia is a market of 35 million consumers, 50 percent is under 25, and the youth of Saudi Arabia are particularly susceptible to Western consumer trends. This is a market of opportunity, often over-looked in favour of neighbouring Gulf markets. Supermarket shelves are increasingly offering imported products and there are significant growth opportunities. Now is a good time for Wales to capture market share.

Opportunity to build presence in the Middle East

Destination: Middle East is a pilot project to support in-market retail promotions and on-trade consumer engagement. A range of Welsh food and drink products will be promoted collectively for agreed periods in target supermarkets, high end hotels and restaurants around St. David’s Day 2023.

Insight Conference 2023: Strive and Thrive

The Insight Conference 2023 will focus on how businesses can strive and thrive in the current economic climate, with keynote speakers from Kantar, IGD, CGA, thefoodpeople and The Insight Programme. The conference will include panel discussions and relevant case studies for best practice. Morning sessions will cover retail, OOH, export, economic context, and NPD.

Further information will be released early in 2023.

Safeguarding Workers’ Rights in the Food & Drink Sector in Wales

Food Skills Cymru working in partnership with Welsh Government’s Social Partnership, Employability and Fair Work Directorate will be running 3 online workshops in January 2023 to provide an opportunity to learn more about workers’ rights in the context of the food and drink sector in Wales. Participants will hear and engage with speakers from a range of organisations promoting workers’ rights and tackling labour market abuse and exploitation.

Food Skills Cymru – Decarbonisation Training Workshops

Building on the success of a pilot project run in the autumn, Food Skills Cymru working in partnership with GEP Environmental will be delivering a series of decarbonisation training workshops in early 2023. The workshops focus on raising the awareness on the importance of moving towards net zero for the sector, Wales, UK and global benefits by providing beneficiaries with the right skills to make decisions on how they can move towards net zero, share best practice with colleagues and implement changes to their business strategies, technology and process design in all day to day working practices.

Resilient Food & Drink Supply Chains Pilot Project

The Welsh food and drink sector is facing unprecedented supply chain cost pressures which are predicted to get worse over the coming months. Cymru Connects is a pilot procurement platform solution aimed at supporting producers to develop more efficient and robust supply chains. The platform is hosted by Canopy and provides full visibility of verified supplier information. The project has received funding from the Covid Recovery Challenge Fund.

The Sustainable Scale-up Cluster Student Placement Programme

In collaboration with Cardiff Business School, the Sustainable Upgrade Cluster piloted a student placement programme which supported students to join six ambitious food manufacturing businesses in Wales where they had undertaken a management project in a range of specialist areas, including human resources, supply chain, marketing, general management and finance.

Celtic Connections: Royal Highland Show 2022

As part of the Celtic Connections project, nine of the best food and drink producers attended the 200^th Royal Highland Show in June 2022 to fly the Welsh flag for Wales food and drink.

Celtic Connections is a project aimed to increase consumer and trade awareness of Welsh food & drink through a shared Celtic Heritage. This project supports the additional growth in the UK market by piloting new routes to market for Welsh food and drink producers through exploring consumer and trade awareness building activities in Scotland, North West England and Northern Ireland.