What did we learn from mapping Scotland’s food and drink sectors

Further to her blog spot on the major piece of work by SAOS's Supply Chain team: Why Supply Chain Mapping is Key for Business Resilience, SAOS Supply Chain Development Manager, Rona Sutherland, gives an update on the importance of the work and what we've learned from it.

What did we learn from mapping Scotland’s food and drink sectors?

Mapping our food and drink sectors has furthered our work in accurately identifying the key strengths of the supply chain here in Scotland. Crucially, our varied geography, soil conditions and temperate climate allow Scotland to produce an extensive range of animal and crop products both naturally and sustainably. In a world where care for the planet and its limited resources are of paramount importance, this gives Scotland a major advantage. Coupled with that, extensive animal health, welfare and whole chain assurance systems have been developed in Scotland to underpin the provenance of our products, several of which, including whisky, seafood, salmon, beef, and seed potatoes, enjoy a world-wide reputation as premium quality products.

We have also identified some of the key drivers pushing change across the agri food landscape today. The consumer now demands greater sustainability, requiring less packaging and use of plastics, less use of antibiotics, there is reduced consumption of meat and an increase in plant-based diets. Additionally, we live in a volatile political climate, and this has led to disruption across global supply chains, highlighting the need for greater self-sufficiency in food production and the development of more local food and drink supply chains. We see greater demand for supply chain transparency and robustness, coupled with the need for greater efficiency, to mitigate the effects of soaring costs and labour shortages. All these are driving the requirement for greater automation and digitisation within the industry.

How ready are we to respond?

This work has identified common issues that we need to tackle if we want to have a food and drink industry that is truly ‘future fit’. Some of these are infrastructural and involve other sectors too, but tackling these, in the first instance, will require a long-term, co-ordinated, and strategic approach that includes partnership working between Government and industry. Key priorities include:

• road, ferry, air and seaport infrastructure and capacity
• warehousing, cold storage and freezing capacity
• UK ownership and control of critical supplies
• rural housing availability and digital connectivity in rural areas.

There are other issues where the opportunity exists for each sector to take a proactive lead on progressing the change required. These include:

• maximising value from waste streams
• greater use of recycling technologies
• greater uptake of renewables and precision farming techniques, and smart technology
• development of low impact alternatives to chemicals for disease and pest control
• development of new skills including digital, data and tech.

Want to know more?
If you are interested in hearing more about SAOS’s supply chain work and discussing in detail any supply chain issues you are facing, please contact the team via patricia.rojas@saos.coop. We’d really like to hear from you.