A SINGLE marketing brand for all sustainable Scottish produce is to be created, with Scotch beef, lamb and pork to lead the way, funded by £1.5 million from the newly devolved red meat levy.

The ScotGov plan is that the brand – ‘Sustainably Scottish’– will eventually be available to all Scottish based producers, manufacturers and suppliers, big or small, that can satisfy stringent criteria on provenance and low carbon operations.

As part of its plans to secure a strong recovery for Scotland’s food and drink sector after Brexit and the pandemic, the SNP administration has also pledged to create a Scottish Food Agency to promote food, drink and horticulture, attract investment, help increase processing capacity and improve supply chains and infrastructure.

There is also to be a new £15 million fund to support food processing and manufacture to develop local supply chains and transition to low or zero carbon operations, supporting a local food strategy encouraging locally based production and circular supply chains, cutting food miles and enabling more people to enjoy food grown locally.

The latest figures show UK food exports to the EU in February remained well below last year's levels, despite them recovering from the slump in January. Exports are down 29% since leaving the EU.

Commenting, former hill farmer and recently elected SNP MSP for Perthshire South and Kinross-Shire, Jim Fairlie, said: “The SNP recognises that food and drink is one of the jewels in Scotland’s economic crown – as well as a huge part of Scotland’s past, present and future – and we will do more to harness that and support its sustainable growth in the future.

“A key part of our plans to do this will be to create a single marketing brand known as ‘Sustainably Scottish’, which will not only promote Scotland’s food and drink in Scotland and across the world, but will help to ensure more of our food is produced sustainably.

“The SNP in Government already committed to investing £5 million to support Scotland’s food and drink industry to recover from the impact of Covid, secured £1.5 million to promote Scotland’s quality red meat, and increased the number of councils participating in the Food for Life programme which provides fresh, local healthy produce for school meals – but we want to go further," he added.