£10 million in grants awarded to support Scottish food and drink businesses

A total of 33 businesses, large and small, will receive grants ranging from £16,000 to £1.4 million from the Food Processing, Marketing and Cooperation (FPMC) grant scheme.

Projects include capacity building for a dairy farm to meet the growing demand for its soft cheese, setting up of a new venison processing operation and installation of solar panels at a butcher premises to reduce carbon footprint and minimise electricity costs.

During a visit to one of the recipients of the fund, a family run organic farm in Aberdeenshire, Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon said:

“The Scottish Government is supporting investment and expansion in our food and drink sector which offers incredible produce that is enjoyed at home and abroad.

“The FPMC scheme has enabled some really exciting projects in the past and I’m confident that this round of funding will play an important role in helping producers continue to deliver high-quality, innovative and nutritious products – securing and creating jobs and boosting the economy.

“I look forward to seeing how these grants enable businesses to move to the next level and I wish them the very best.”

Phil Swire of P HM & PP Swire, Balmakewan Farm Shop, said:

“We are absolutely delighted that our FPMC Grant application was successful. The FPMC grant gives our small farming business a huge opportunity to diversify and move forward.

“It will allow us to process our Organically home grown produce on site, creating further local employment. It is my belief that we need to be offering nutrient dense, ethically farmed, chemical free and environmentally positive food directly to local consumers whilst also reducing food miles. This project will allow our small family run farm to start offering exactly this to our local community.”

Background

FPMC is one of a number of funding schemes which make up the Scottish Rural Development Programme.  The scheme provides grant funding to businesses (or groups of businesses) within the Scottish food and drink sector to enable them to:

• develop or create food processing facilities, including buildings and equipment
• market products in home and export markets,
• run pilot projects and feasibility studies
• to run co-operative ventures to ensure more value is retained by both farmers and growers and to improve supply-chain efficiency.

You can find more information plus a list of recipients here