Grow regionally

Consumers, local tourism, business communities, the environment – all benefiting from regional food growth. That’s why it is such a priority for us at Scotland Food & Drink. 

Regional food is so important to Scotland 

Consumers, local tourism, business communities, the environment – all benefiting from regional food growth. That’s why it is such a priority for us at Scotland Food & Drink. 

 

We’re here to help grow your local sales 

Our UK Market Development team’s action plan for growth includes: 

  • Helping food and drink businesses develop their strengths 
  • Supporting Scotland’s network of regional food groups 
  • Designing and opening new trading platforms, including for regional food and drink.  

We’re also working with our tourism partners to help deliver the Food Tourism Scotland strategy.

Develop your skills. Grow your market. Increase your sales.  

We support a range of regional food initiatives, including helping regional food groups to create localised plans for growth, working with industry-led producers’ groups, and offering webinars and guides on key topics from pricing to digital marketing. Explore below to see what we do to help locally.

Regional Food Fund 2023/24

We recently launched the fourth round of the Regional Food Fund. This aims to provides support for small-scale regional, collaborative projects across Scotland. Find out more about this year's projects. 

Opportunities at your fingertips

Take a look at events and programmes organised to aid in your growth locally and across Scotland

Meet the Buyer & Briefing events 

We work with trade customers from all market sectors, forging relationships with key category buyers and decision makers to identify new and exclusive sales opportunities for our members. 

Our programme of meet the buyer events run throughout the year with retailers, wholesalers and foodservice. These highly popular events highlight new commercial opportunities and present an opportunity for you to pitch to buyers from across the UK for the chance to secure new business and grow your sales. 

Take a look at our upcoming events

Supplier Development Programmes

 

SALSA Go! 

Scotland Food & Drink is again offering mentoring support to Scottish businesses to achieve SALSA Certification. 

Find out more about SALSA Go!

 

BRCGS 

Funded support to Scottish businesses to achieve internationally recognised Brand Reputation Compliance Global Standards (BRCGS) certification. 

Find out more about BRCGS

Trade Shows & Exhibitions 

The UK Market Development team work closely with exhibition and trade show organisers; looking for the best opportunities for you to showcase your products and target the right audiences. We’re here to make sure you attend the shows right for you.  

Take a look at our upcoming events

The Academy 

Sell your offering. Build your brand. Thrive in your market. That’s what The Academy helps you do. It is a unique training programme designed for businesses at every stage of their growth journey. 

Start your journey with The Academy

The Knowledge Bank 

The Knowledge Bank is here to power business growth by giving you access to unrivalled insight and analysis to help you unlock commercial success. Whether you’re looking at home markets or exports, The Knowledge Bank will help you plan better and act smarter. 

Take the next steps to unlocking growth

Scotland’s Regional Food Groups

Scotland’s regional food groups are the local heroes of our food and drink sector.

 

Guide: Food and drink trails

Food and Drink Trails for Scotland – a practical guide 

Inspire visitors to travel, increase participation in local food and drink experiences, boost expenditure on food and drink, generate solid economic impact for your area. Food and drink trails can be a powerful way for destinations to share their distinctive food and drink story with the world. 

In partnership with Tina O’Dwyer, The Tourism Space, here you'll find a guide on how to help you create, develop and manage successful food and drink trails. Whether you have an existing trail or are thinking about setting up a new one, this guide is for you. 

Before reading it, listen to this brief video by Tina, who will set the scene and inspire you on your food and drink trail journey. 

Guide: Learning Journeys

Managing and developing learning journeys guide

Stepping outside your business on a learning journey, through visiting and experiencing how peers in another location operate, can be a powerful experience for all involved, with benefits including shared knowledge; product development; personal growth and collaboration. 

This guide, produced in partnership with Karen Donnelly Associates, set out everything you need to know to plan and deliver a successful learning journey, whether you’re a food, drink or tourism business; regional food group; destination organisation or individual. We hope you find it useful. 

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