News on the Food and Drink sector in Moray
Highlands & Islands Food and Drink Awards 2007The winners were announced at a dinner at the Drummossie Hotel in Inverness on Friday 14th September. Click here for details of the winners. Local Food marketing guide launchedThe publication of the local food marketing guide is part of the Scottish Government funded Scottish Agricultural College Advisory Activity programme. The guide has been produced to assist and advise producers, and provides a number of different aspects regarding local food, including alternative routes to market and marketing best practice. The guide sets out to give food producers ideas and options and contains a number of resources which producers can use to seek further assistance and help with marketing their products. For more information see www.sac.ac.uk/news/currentnews/localfoodguide. Food Tourism ScotlandFood Tourism Scotland have launched a new resource geared to help Scottish Tourism businesses reap maximum benefit from Scotland's larder. The online 'food kit' aims to encourage and assist Scotland's tourism sector to source and serve, fresh, seasonal and distinctive food and to ensure visitors take home a positive memorable food experience. The website has been developed in response to recent research which revealed that over 70% of potential visitors to Scotland wanted to taste traditional dishes, regional specialities and fresh local produce. The kit is free and available at www.foodtourismscotland.com. New guide to 'Accessing Finance for Innovation'A reference source for both food & drink companies and sector support organisations that highlights current levels of innovation , the investment climate and potential growth markets is located on the Scottish Food and Drink website. This database, compiled by Leatherhead Food International and Connect, holds a full range of potential investors in the food and drink sector in Scotland. More information can be found here. Scottish Food & Drink helpline serviceThis offers comprehensive extracts of market reports or free access to online resources. At present there are twelve subscription based services to a number of key information providers such as Leatherhead Food International and Equifax. There are also eighteen Business Insights reports (such as "marketing food and drink to kids") and over a hundred Mintel reports. Telephone 0845 601 3752 or follow this link. Localfoodshop.co.ukLocalfoodshop.co.uk has been set up as a social enterprise to support the local food sector and is a new way for farmers and producers to sell their goods directly to consumers. Whilst the site primarily encourages local trading through a postcode-based search system, buyers from across the UK can find producers and buy online. The site operates like a virtual farmers' market with information about the goods and services on offer, and the customers can place their orders from the comfort of their own home. This website gives producers the opportunity to move into the world of e-commerce without taking the huge step of building and maintaining their own website and e-commerce system. Or, alternatively, those that already do have their own website are able to widen their marketing and customer base. For more information, see the website or telephone 0845 458 0061. |