Industry, government and farmers must connect
TORONTO — Government involvement is important if a national food strategy is to be implemented, said an international panel at the Canadian Food Summit March 18.
However, industry, including primary producers, needs to be the main driver.
“Your strategy has to connect to the primary industry,” said James Withers, chief executive officer of Scotland Food & Drink.
“Unless farmers are involved and enthused, your processors won’t have anything to work with.”
Maarten Schans of the Netherlands’ Foreign Investment Agency, said his country’s modest dimensions make co-operation within the food sector easy. As well, he said the connection between the economic and social aspects of food within society is also important.
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“We’re very much demand driven and it’s very much a bottom up approach. The industry is in the driver’s seat.”
The Netherlands’ embrace of trade is another important aspect of the country’s food industry, making it the world’s second largest agricultural nation after the United States.
“If you want to innovate, you need to think big. You don’t think Canada. You don’t think the Netherlands. You think international.”
He used Unilever as an example.
“Ask anyone there whether Unilever is a Dutch company or a U.K. company and they will just laugh. They’re international.”
The Netherlands’ food strategy has an international flavour, but there is also government involvement. Schans called it the “triple helix” approach, which involves industry partners and government working together to develop a policy emphasizing waste reduction, energy conservation, logistics, high value markets and a focus on healthy food.
Withers said the government initiated Scotland’s national food strategy in 2007, but it was the common vision among producers, processors and other industry partners that moved it forward. Having a single plan makes it easier for government to get on board, he said.
Scotland is building on its providence and cultural identity at both a local and international level. Many of the companies involved are small to medium-sized.
“Research and development and management skills, these are the very things you need to invest in when times are tough,” Withers said.
“Food and drink is now Scotland’s most successful sector. We managed to push ourselves out of stagnation and into a growth phase.”
Scotland has targeted 15 international markets with added emphasis on seven, including Canada and the United States.
Ireland is also looking at Canada as an export opportunity, according to Paul Kelly, director of Food & Drink Ireland. Forty-two percent of the country’s exports go to the United Kingdom, another 32 percent to other European Union nations and 26 percent to the rest of the world.
Ireland draws on its natural advantage — pasture — to export 90 percent of its beef production, 85 percent of its dairy and 75 percent of its sheep and lamb. Infant formula is among the value-added opportunities being exploited.
The target is to increase exports by 42 percent by 2020.
