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The next Government must support the UK’s food and drink sector as a strategic priority in its own right, according to the Food and Drink Federation (FDF), which today published a checklist of 20 ways to safeguard the future success of the country’s biggest manufacturing industry.

The checklist sets out the measures that FDF believes the next Government could adopt to maintain the competitiveness of the food and drink sector. The measures are set out in simple steps across five themes: create a vision for food; back us in going green; cut the red tape; support manufacturers; and protect innovation (2).

Speaking at a fringe event organised by FDF with the National Farmers’ Union and the British Retail Consortium at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester (3), FDF Director General Melanie Leech will say:

“Our checklist sets out the ways in which we think the next Government should support an economically important, high value manufacturing sector. All our ideas are easy to implement and should be cost neutral for taxpayers. But we believe they will help to safeguard the future success of the UK’s biggest manufacturing industry – a sector that has an excellent track record of generating wealth for the nation, providing employment opportunities nationally and responding responsibly to societal concerns about diet, health and the environment.”