Food and drink

Adding Value to Farm Produce

New Entrants to Farming Programme's first ever 'Adding Value to Produce - an Introduction' course.

This course is for you if a shift from selling livestock and crops to selling food and drink, ready for the consumer, is buzzing around your mind in muddled thoughts. It is aimed at new entrants and young farmers with drive and enthusiasm who want to take that first step in exploring and organising these ideas.

The programme will include:

People involved in the seafood industry are being encouraged to take part in an online survey as part of a study on gender inequality in the industry.

The survey is being carried out by WSI - the International Association for Women in the Seafood Industry.

The GlenWyvis Distillery has reached the first target of £250,000 in their second Community Share Offer.

The community-owned distillery in Dingwall already had 2,600 members who invested £2.6 million in the original share offer in 2016 and this new open share offer has already added a further 400 members in just two months.

Stirling Food Assembly celebrates its first birthday this Thursday (5 October), having sold a whopping 2800 baskets of produce and generated over £55,000 for the local economy. 

Making a Living from Local Food – Networking Event

Nourish Scotland is organising a one-day networking event for new and aspiring small local food and related businesses at the Falkland Stewardship Centre in Fife on Oct 2. There will be speakers, consultation with rural services (including the Soil Association, Business Gateway Fife, Farm Advisory Service and a Scot Gov Department of Agriculture Officer); site tours, and more!  

RSPB Scotland have announced the shortlist for their Nature of Scotland Awards 2017.

The awards find and celebrate the most dedicated and passionate people working to protect Scotland's internationally renowned wildlife and habitats.

Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing has announced plans to increase the use of local food and drink in schools, hospitals and other public sector organisations.

Funding of £1.2 million will expand the current Food for Life programme, to increase the amount of locally-sourced and produced food in Scottish schools. And a further £100,000 will deliver a new Supplier Development Programme to help small and medium-sized food and drink businesses compete for public sector food contracts.

Watch our latest SRDP on Film video to find out about a Scottish tea growing project.

In our Tea Gardens of Scotland film you can learn how a group of nine tea growers in Angus, Perthshire and Fife are working together to grow tea from seed. The cooperation project was funded by Angus LEADER, Rural Perth & Kinross LEADER and Fife LEADER.

The next application deadline for the Food Processing, Marketing and Cooperation scheme is 19 November 2017.

The Food Processing, Marketing and Cooperation scheme is part of the Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP).

A series of films from the Scottish Rural Network (SRN) will be released over the Autumn to publicise the positive impact and opportunities created by the Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP).

The “SRDP on Film” season will highlight a range of projects funded under the SRDP in up to twenty short films set to be released every Thursday on the SRN website and social media channels.

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