Scottish Grocery Retailers' Forum Meets in Edinburgh

Supermarkets bosses met in Edinburgh yesterday to discuss ongoing work with the Scottish Government to support Scotland's food and drink industry.

Representatives from major food and drink retailers and the Scottish Retail Consortium met with Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead to set out future priorities for joint working.

Key achievements in the past few months include:

• Sainsbury's taking up a major new contract with local suppliers to supply fresh west coast langoustines, supported by a £60,000 Scottish Government grant through Seafood Scotland
• A Supplier Development Programme, run by Scotland Food & Drink and part-funded by the Scottish Government, has led to new and more Scottish products in Asda Stores regionally and nationwide

Speaking after the forum, Mr Lochhead said: "This was the first meeting of the forum since the Scottish Government was re-elected in May and provided a useful opportunity to reflect on how we can continue working together with retailers to create a successful food and drink sector in Scotland.

"We are very grateful for the support retailers have shown in supporting our homegrown produce to date and are keen to maximise opportunities to further champion Scottish producers in the future.

"The positive effects of this are twofold in supporting our fishermen, farmers and primary producers whilst supermarkets benefit from increased consumer interest in quality Scottish food and drink.

"Partnership working has helped west coast langoustine fishermen secure a major contract with Sainsbury's, which is another example of our food and drink industry going from strength to strength with turnover hitting the £11.9 billion mark recently.

"Our ambition is to move the food agenda forward to help deliver our economic, health, education and environmental goals over the next five years and retailers have a key role to play in this.

"Our Government Economic Strategy focuses on accelerating economic recovery to help keep people in jobs, which means they will have more money in their pockets to spend, which should be good news for retailers.

"Everyone is aware the Spending Review announced last week contained some tough but fair choices because of budget cuts imposed by Westminster, including the introduction of a public health levy.

"Scotland's health and social problems associated with alcohol and tobacco use are well documented and the income of the public health levy, a supplement on business rates, will be used to contribute towards the preventative spend measures that will be taken forward jointly with the Scottish Government, local authorities, the NHS and the third sector.

"The budget is a consultative document and Mr Swinney is happy to meet the Scottish Retail Consortium next month and listen to their concerns on these issues."

The Scottish Government is committed to working with supermarkets to create a successful food and drink sector in Scotland.

It is also improving food education in schools to empower young people to choose fresh healthy, local and seasonal food, with more than £600,000 invested since 2009 in helping school pupils to understand more about the food they eat.

The Scottish Grocery Retailers' Forum took place at Macdonald Holyrood Hotel, Edinburgh. Attendees included: Aldi, Asda, The Co-operative, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Tesco, Waitrose, the Scottish Grocers' Federation and botj the British and Scottish Retail Consortium.

Since the Supermarket Summit in 2008 and the first Retailer's Forum in 2009, examples of joint working have included:

• During the 2009 Royal Highland Show, all retailers signed up to the Retailers' Charter. This meant that the retailers are committed to playing their part in taking forward the National Food and Drink policy to lead Scotland towards a better food culture that thrives on quality, health, wellbeing and environmental sustainability.

• The Scottish Government is working with several major supermarket chains on the Scottish Government's "Take Life On" campaign, which seeks to encourage people to take small steps to make positive changes to their lifestyles (including healthier eating).

• The Scottish Government commissioned a research project through DTZ on the economic importance of the retail industry to Scotland which reported on March 22, 2011.

• Increased engagement between the Scottish Government and the industry on resilience issues.

• Co-operation with retailers is particularly important in terms of helping Scottish producers and processors to find new markets for their produce, promoting healthy and sustainable food choices, and helping Scotland reduce its environmental impact, by meeting its climate change targets and moving towards a zero-waste society.

More retail news from Scotland.