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Food & Drink

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Food & Drink

For more information about the GREAT campaign and the information found in these scripts, please contact Annette Craze: annette.craze@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

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  • The food and drink industry is the UK’s largest manufacturing sector, with an output of £33 billion and supporting 456,000 jobs. In 2021, UK food and drink exports were £25 billion, with produce exported to 220 countries (Source: Food and Drink Industry Federation, 2023).

  • From Scottish salmon and Welsh lamb, to Northern Irish beef and English sparkling wine, UK produce is recognised worldwide for its taste, quality, safety and traceability.

  • British farming methods are at the forefront of modern agriculture globally with very high standards of animal welfare, food safety, sustainability and traceability “from farm to fork”. The UK’s biodiverse landscape provides ideal conditions for farming and for producing premium quality beef, lamb and pork. Beef and pork exports were worth over £1.1 billion in 2023 (Source: FDF 2024).

  • The UK cheese industry has won international awards for its exceptional quality. Flavour profiles are diverse with 700 distinctive cheese types, including artisanal cheese from ewe’s milk, soft cheese using goat’s milk and cave-aged hard cheeses from cow’s milk. In 2022, 180,000 tonnes of UK cheese were exported globally (Source: AHDB, 2023).

  • The UK has an international reputation for seafood and is home to many of the world’s best fish and shellfish including fresh whitefish (hake, monkfish, haddock and pollock), prime flatfish (halibut, turbot and sole), shellfish (lobsters, crabs, langoustines, mussels and oysters) and oily fish. In 2022 454,000 tonnes of UK seafood worth around £1.7 billion were exported globally (Source: Seafish 2024).

  • The UK’s world-class drinks industry includes Scotch Whisky, the world’s number one internationally-traded spirit, which is exported to 174 markets and reached over £6 billion for the first time in 2022 (Source: Scotch Whisky Association, 2022). The UK is also one of the fastest growing wine regions in the world, with 943 commercial vineyards and 209 world-class wineries. In 2022, UK producers generated almost 12 million bottles of wine, which were exported around the world to markets including the US, Japan and Scandinavia (Source: WineGB, 2023).

GREAT Food & Drink

From Scottish salmon and Welsh lamb, to Northern Irish beef and English sparkling wine, UK produce is recognised worldwide for its taste and quality. The GREAT Food and Drink campaign (delivered by DEFRA) supports UK businesses to showcase their products in China, Japan, UAE and USA, as well as targeted initiatives in key markets including France, Germany and Spain.

To help improve perceptions and drive international demand, the campaign delivers in-market events and activities that get UK food and drink into the hands and mouths of buyers, influencers and consumers, as well as creates consumer demand through engaging digital content and media partnerships.

The campaign supports the work of DEFRA’s 16 international agrifood attachés, working with them to improve perceptions of UK food and drink, funding and planning high impact promotional events and providing marketing and branding support.