Preparations ahead of Scotland’s 2015 Year of Food and Drink are underway with the promotion of the country’s food and drink in priority export markets.

The Scotland Food & Drink Export Plan was launched in March this year and now there are plans to harness the GlobalScot network.

Outlining some of the proposals for the 2015 Year of Food and Drink as he addressed an audience of key food and drink companies at Scotland House, Scotland’s cabinet secretary for rural affairs, food and the environment, Richard Lochhead, says, “GlobalScots help Scottish companies develop, expand and thrive in a competitive market, so who better to have on the ground promoting Scotland’s food and drink companies and the spectacular range of top quality products they produce? We have set a new export target of achieving £7.1 billion by 2017 after smashing the previous £5.1 billion target six years early, and latest figures show exports have grown by over 50% from 2007 to 2013.

“We know there is a huge global appetite for Scottish produce and fully utilising the successful GlobalScots network to promote the premium quality and provenance of our products will no doubt lead to great success in the priority export markets set out in the Export Plan I launched earlier this year.”