The UK Food Valley has welcomed today’s publication of the Government’s Food Strategy White Paper.

The UK Food Valley has welcomed today’s publication of the Government’s Food Strategy White Paper, which recognises the importance of UK food production in helping meet the cost of living crisis while addressing wider issues in the food chain. 

“We are pleased to see recognition of the need to increase UK food production and to automate to help enable this, as has been spearheaded by the team at the University of Lincoln led by Professor Simon Pearson,” said Sarah Louise Fairburn, Chair of the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership’s Food Board. 

“We welcome the recommendations to increase the production of vegetables, salad and fruit as promoted in our fresh produce investment proposition, a sector where Greater Lincolnshire is home to UK-leading production, trading and distribution clusters. 

As the Food Strategy notes, the seafood sector is an essential source of employment in the Humber region and has an important role to play in levelling up. Grimsby is England’s leading fish processing hub, accounting for around a third of all UK seafood processing jobs, and it has a rich heritage in producing and processing high-quality seafood that the nation loves.

The strategy adds that the Grimsby seafood cluster, working closely with Government, will play an important role in ensuring the sector can take advantage of new trade deals, adapt to climate change, and increase uptake of skills training to ensure the cluster has the right people to continue to provide quality seafood to the UK and beyond.

“The recommendation to increase fish production through aquaculture is also in line with our plans and aquaculture proposition published in 2021,” said Sarah Louise Fairburn.

“We look forward to working across the food chain to deliver on the Food Strategy, and to reading the Health White Paper expected later this year which aims to tackle some of the UK’s health challenges.”

Find out more about the Grimsby seafood processing and trading cluster by visiting the Made Great in Grimsby website.