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Scottish food exports pass £1bn mark

Siri Dybdal
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Nearly two-thirds of food sales came from fish and shellfish, which were up by 12 per cent in the year, BBC News reported last night.

Fresh salmon was up by 20 per cebn to 78,600 tonnes of exported fish, with the USA accounting for nearly 32,000 tonnes.

Export sales by value were up 10 per cent at £3.45bn, according to the HMRC figures, taking total food and drink exports to £4.5bn.

France remained Scotland's top export market in Europe, followed by Ireland and Spain.

Anne MacColl, chief executive of Scottish Development International (SDI), the government's trade promotion agency that extracted the HMRC figures, told BBC News the numbers could be explained by hard work and networking.

She also said that traditional export markets such as Europe and the US are proving very attractive to Scottish companies, but  opportunities further afield in Asia could not be underestimated.

"Thanks to the competitive exchange rate, Scottish goods are now up to 40% cheaper than they were two years ago, and Asia has plenty of high net worth individuals who have money in their pockets," she told BBC News.

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