A new Great British Food Unit launched on 21 January, with the aim of matching France and Germany for food exports.
Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss said the unit would support exporters and industry to help meet the target of increasing manufactured food exports to £6 billion by 2020. France and Germany currently export more than double the UK, in terms of the value of food and drink.
Over the next five years the new unit aims to help more entrepreneurs start exporting, increase foreign direct investment into the UK, secure and maintain access for UK meat and dairy products to markets like China, Africa and South America and treble the number of apprenticeships in the food and beverage industry.
It also plans to increase the number of protected food names from 64 to 200 to “celebrate the rich heritage and iconic traditions of British food”.
Companies involved with the unit will be offered practical support to identify markets for export and will be “championed” by international UK Trade and Investment teams and British embassies.