Eating for Scotland

Last week in the Scottish Parliament debate on the economy, I took the opportunity to highlight the amazing contribution of the food and drinks industry to our economy.

This success is in no large part down to Scotland’s international reputation for high quality products. People from all over the world, know and believe that Scotland is a one of the very best places to buy food and drink. Our abundance of natural resources, rich culinary history, ingenuity and hard work have all served to make our produce among the most iconic and most sought after in the world. From whisky to seafood, game meat to highland heather honey – Scotland’s success can be attributed to our land and the hard work of thousands who strive to deliver food and drink of outstanding caliber to tables around the world.

Government policy has also played an important role in helping to maintain these high standards, as well as enhancing the industry’s reputation overseas. This has been achieved through the protection of our natural environment – successive governments have ensured that Scotland’s waters are pristine and unpolluted and its land is uncontaminated. This is something that the SNP Government is absolutely committed to continuing within the existing powers of devolution. However, we also want the industry to continue to grow and for that we need more powers.

Regrettably there are threats to our food and drinks industry. At Westminster, attempts to remove us from the EU would create more barriers with other European Union member states. This would threaten our entire export industry by disconnecting us from more than 400 million consumers in Europe. The importance of this market cannot be overstated: it is the biggest single market in the world and accounts for half of all Scottish exports.

Our inability to engage fully as a nation state within the EU or at a wider international level threatens significant harm on specific parts of our food industry. In Scotland today, we still lack the power to stand by ourselves in crucial talks with EU partners about our farming and fishing industries. This is a very serious issue. Scotland is among one of the largest sea fishing nations in Europe and yet it remains shut-out from EU negotiations.

In recent years continued threats from the Faroe Islands’ and Iceland’s abrogation of pelagic fisheries threaten to seriously impact fish stocks as well as harm the livelihoods of Scottish fishermen. Our lack of power of our own affairs means that we are not internationally represented in a meaningful way – in short, we are not able to engage in a way that would help us to protect our markets in the best possible way.

With the Independence Referendum now less than 12 months away, a Yes vote will give Scotland a seat at the top table and a voice when key decisions are made about Europe’s future – a voice that we currently do not have now. As a member of the EU, Scotland would be part of common fisheries and agriculture policy – that means we would be fully involved in all negotiations.

It is clear that Scotland’s food and drink is one of our most successful and important industries – it continues to exceed our economic expectations, contributing over £13 billion to the UK/Scottish economy in 2011. This success has been built on Scotland’s long-standing reputation as having some of the best products in the world. While the Scottish Government has worked hard with the industry exercising what powers it has to get the best deal for Scotland, clearly a vote for independence would push this success even further to ensure that Scotland’s potential is fully maximised.