The next item of business is a debate on motion 7.641, in the name of Fergus Ewing, on Scotland's food and drink strategy ambition 2030. I can invite members who wish to speak in the debate to press the request-to-speak buttons now. I call on Fergus Ewing to speak and move the motion. Cabinet Secretary, 12 minutes are there abouts, please. Presiding Officer, over the past few weeks I have been a very lucky chap indeed, because I have sampled in Granton and Spay, in the excellent food and drink retail specialist Elephant and Castle and Nip of Whiskey, from what I believe is the world's only community-owned distillery, Glen Wivis. I recommend it to you all. I have also the opportunity to sample cider from Thisley Cross in Dunbar, a terrific success story. Seaweed from Marat Seaweed in Edinburgh and its seaweed being exported to the USA, for example, is absolutely delicious. Members may not know, I certainly didn't, that seaweed for consumption is stored in barrels. Each barrel is worth $1,000, which means that one barrel of Scottish seaweed is worth 20 barrels of oil. I have also had the opportunity to launch a somewhat unusual statistic in the lexicon of Scottish Government statistics. In launching the annual food and drink fortnight, I had the world's most aesthetically pleasing, beautiful array of breakfast fare and delicious as well in the baris in Glasgow. In this debate, I know that we all want to celebrate the excellence and entrepreneurial fflair of businesses throughout the country, and all of us celebrate our local contribution to that. I think that those examples typify what seems to be nothing short of a revolution in our food and drink sector. I haven't frequently advocated revolution, but whatever our political views may be, Presiding Officer, about the desirability of revolution, I hope that this one in food and drink is one that we can all today support. The success of the industry is indeed well known. Turnover is up 35 per cent since 2007. Exports are at record levels. The birthrate of new businesses is higher in this sector than anywhere else in the UK, and it covers communities across the land. At the heart of the success has been our reputation, our brand, our provenance for high quality with our clean, natural environment and heritage. None of that could be achieved without the passion, dedication and entrepreneurship of the thousands of people working across the industry, and I pay tribute to them. When I meet those men and women, I am always struck by their verb, their drive and their optimism. With our ambition in 2030, Scotland's Food and Drink has produced this document here, and I am not sure whether the code of conduct allows me any more to do this, but there we are. You have already done it. Thank you, Presiding Officer, you spotted that. However, they are right to be optimistic, because the industry is planning for the future, and it is doing so with high ambition. It knows that the demand for our products is rising, so we need to exploit those opportunities. That is what the Food and Drink strategy is about. Published earlier this year, it is a bold plan of action to grow the value of the industry to £30 billion by 2030. That ambitious goal is one that the Scottish Government supports. Over the past 10 years, we have worked hand in hand with the industry. The industry has told us that to fulfil its potential, it requires new thinking and new ways of doing things, and that is what led to the £10 million investment that we have made to support the strategy. Ambition 230 is founded on three pillars—first, people and skills, secondly, innovation and third, the supply chain. There already are no less than 115,000 people employed across the country in this industry, and there will be, we believe, 27,000 new opportunities over the next decade. It is vital that we have people to meet the demand. Over the next year, a number of measures will be taken forward—education programmes, recruitment campaigns and a new national mentoring programme. The world is changing. Consumers increasingly want healthier food. That presents many opportunities for our businesses, but that does need innovation. We have launched a single gateway for advice and support, making innovation happen. That will be the platform from which we will build more action together with our excellent research institutions. The bedrock of the industry is, of course, our primary producers. It is very important to remember that and explicitly accord to our farmers, crofters and fishermen the credit that it is very easy to neglect to do. That omission, perhaps in the past, has been noticed, so I want to correct that and be clear about that. It is our farmers, our fishermen, our crofters that are producing the high-quality food and drink and beverage, and let us never forget that and value and cherish that in the times ahead. However, looking at the supply chain, it does not always function as it should, and our farmers must get a fair share of the margin. We need processors, retailers and food service to build on the good work and deepen their commitment to that. That will be a key part of the sector action plans that will be developed starting with fruit and veg and seafood. On to markets. At the heart of the strategy is a clear focus on markets. Efforts in international markets are bearing fruit with record levels of exports in 16. We also have a network of what are called in-market specialists in 11 international cities, individuals whose job it is to be a sales force for Scotland's food and drink around the world. I wanted to meet them and I recently did so, and I was really impressed with their professionalism and their passion for Scotland, as well as their market knowledge. Only last weekend, our specialists in the USA secured a two-month showcase of Scottish products in the high-end retail store Bristol Farms. They have also introduced Californians to oat cakes, I believe—something which Hiller 2 did not occur. Our specialists in France had recently secured a listing of Scottish cheeses by the famous French cheese wholesaler Desai, and congratulations to Clarkson on helping to secure that. Our specialists in Shanghai secured a listing of shortbread in over 200 stores of a large coffee chain across China. There are many more of such achievements, and our in-market specialists are helping to sell Scotland all over the world. That good work will continue, but we must focus on the UK and our home market. Many of our businesses are doing well in the UK market, but there is more potential whether through retail, food service or artisan markets. Scotland Food and Drink is developing a UK market strategy to build on the things that have worked well in export markets. That will include placing staff directly into the buying teams of retailers and food services. We know that that works, but to be successful further across the UK and international markets, we need a sound foundation at home. Interest and pride in our food and drink is flourishing. Scottish shoppers are, I believe, looking for local produce. Schools and hospitals are sourcing more locally, and visitors are more interested in our food and drink, so we need to do two things. First, we need to ensure that there is a sustainable and productive farming sector that underpins the food and drink industry, and that our four agricultural champions are taking forward work to help to achieve that. I welcome the establishment of the four champions, but do you not think that we need to add another champion in there—a champion for environment, a champion for landscape, a champion for all the amazing environmental works that Scottish agriculture delivers? We already have champions in the environmental group, which my colleague and friend Roseanna Cunningham tabled and met at the summit last year and who are shortly to meet again. We have on the national council of advisers, as I am sure the member knows, the agricultural development officer of the soil association. The soil association is at the very heart of the environment. The champion's work has a broad focus on agriculture, but we will also consider the wider, rural, environmental and economic impacts. That complements work that has been taken forward by other stakeholders' groups, such as the Environment and Climate Change Round Table, whose membership includes the RSPB, the WWF and Friends of the Earth. Secondly, we need to increase demand for locally produced food and drink. Our programme for government set out a number of commitments to support that, and today I published a paper providing more detail of the range of actions that we will take forward with industry. Those cover three main areas. First, public food. Progress has been made to increase local sourcing in schools, hospitals and prisons. Forty-eight per cent sourced a Scottish and increased from 41 per cent in 2007 progress made. Our colleagues in the NHS and Scotland Excel are committed to doing more, and together we have identified actions that will have the most impact, so there will be a focus on supplier development. Our programme will support 30 businesses with real-growth potential to better compete for public sector contracts and exploit other market opportunities. Building our business capability is key if we want them to grow, diversify. Our expansion of the Food for Life programme across schools has the potential to transform local supply chains. Our new investment of £1 million over the next three years will have local sourcing at its heart. That requires support from local authorities, and I will continue to work with them to encourage greater take-up, and I hope that other members will add their support, too. Secondly, we will build on the good work that has been done to enhance the experience for visitors and tourists, including innovative businesses. For example, in the Highlands and Islands, in the constituency of Rhoda Grant, the Black Ale Brewery, for example, or the Cairngorn Brewery, and they have, of course, increasingly played a part in tourism as well as food and drink. Last year, more than 14 million visitors came to Scotland, and that number is rising, and, globally, food tourism is a growing industry. We will work with Visit Scotland and, in March, publish the first national food and drink tourism action plan. That will set out actions across a number of areas, including expanding the food charter across the hospitality interests and visitor attractions and enhancing the taste of our best quality assurance scheme awarded to restaurants, cafes and hotels. Thirdly, we will showcase the very best of Scotland's regions through a series of events and target support to local producers. One of our strengths is the diversity of our regions in their unique food production. Over the next two years, we will create six regional showcasing events to promote the regions' finest produce to domestic buyers. Those events will be a celebration of local producers connecting businesses with buyers. Those events are very successful. We will also launch a new regional food fund to give small producers an opportunity to access grants to help to generate interest. I want to be as consensual as possible, as you know, as always. I have decided that we will certainly accept the Labour amendment to ensure that more beer is displayed in our shops and in our supermarkets. I commend the process that breaks have made in supporting craft brewers and the success that they have already achieved. I would like to have supported the Tories amendment. We want to support more productive and profitable farming. Of course, we do much of reference devoted to that. I think that the bit about business rates at the end is a bit unclear. I know that the Tories will, in any event, welcome the fact that we have not supported the Barclay recommendation to make agricultural buildings on the valuation role, nor have we supported that recommendation to make food processing and farms rateable. I think that that is common ground, but I thought that it was a bit of vagueness at the end, which was a bit of a shame because I am such a consensual chap. Mr Rumble's amendment is hard as in the right place—we all know that, Presiding Officer—but his interpretation of the previous amendment that Parliament passed is somewhat idiosyncratic. He called for Parliament to have an independent group, and that is what we have done. However, he says that we must have a group of stakeholders. If we have a group of stakeholders, it is not really an independent group. Moreover, I believe that I have demonstrated that we have a wide range covering forestry and environment tourism on the group. If you look at the excellent CVs of the excellent people, one can see that. I want to be consensual to Cabinet Secretary, but you must wind up and move your motion. I will always support you, Presiding Officer. That is not moving the motion. I am moving my motion as well. Thank you very much. I call Everon Mountain to speak and move amendment 7.641.3. Mr Mountain, please, eight minutes are thereabouts. Presiding Officer, thank you. I would like to refer members to my register of interest. The Cabinet Secretary was in a brilliant move when he started this and finished his speech. He was slightly less able to say that he would support our amendment. Maybe if he listens carefully to what I am about to say, he will find it easier to do so. Before I move my amendment, I would however like to make a statement in my capacity as convener of the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee. The committee unanimously agreed yesterday, given the importance of food and drink to Scotland, that we would focus part of our scrutiny of this year's budget on this area. I believe that that is a real acknowledgement of the importance of this subject. Presiding Officer, I do move the amendment in my name. I would like to say that, a fair time ago, Scottish cuisine had become something of a joke amongst comedians. Thanks to characters like Rhab-Cine Nespid, it appeared that the traditional Scottish dining experience started and ended in the deep fat frile. I am very happy to see that Scottish food and drink has earned itself a vastly more positive reputation in the last 10 years. Whether it is the beef and barley that come from Stras Bay, the soft fruit that come from the alluvial plains of Persia, the distinctive sheep and cattle that come from the highlands or the fish delivered by a fisherman, we have one of the best natural larders in the world, and we believe that we need to use it wisely. We need a sustainable harvest without depleting the environment. I welcome the progress that we have seen since the strategy was launched in 2007. Much of it can be put down to the design of Scotland's food and drink partnership, a collaborative model that has brought together government, public agencies and indeed industry. There is a good lesson, I believe, to be learnt from this partnership. It has found the right balance between ensuring that the Government knows and is told when to step forward and when to step back, to give the sector the freedom it needs when it steps back, to allow industry to lead innovations. I believe that the Scottish Government must ensure that it remembers that when designing other schemes to support rural businesses. I make a plea to the cabinet secretary, please do not let us repeat the administrative burdens that we have seen in the beef efficiency scheme. Credit where credit is due. The achievements of Scotland's food and drink partnership include increasing turnover by 44 per cent, exports up by 56 per cent and an industry worth £14.4 billion. That is the type of economic growth that will always find cross-party support, but success does not mean that it is all perfect, far from it. If we look carefully at the statistics, there are one or two concerning trends. Annual turnover peaked in 2014 and has fallen from the £14.4 billion down to the £13.5 billion. Employment in the sector has fallen and therefore this renewed purpose for the Scotland Food and Drink Partnership growth strategy could not have arrived sooner in my mind. We welcome the ambition that is stated in the new growth strategy to resolve the skills shortages in the sector and to double the annual take-over by 2030. That is a laudable target, but it can be reached only as long as the Scottish Government focus and delivers in the following areas. Firstly, I believe that the Scottish Government must do more to ensure that farm gate prices are realistic. To paraphrase the words of Andrew McCormack, the president of NFU Scotland, farmers and growers and crofters need to benefit from the huge growth that has taken place in the food and drink industry. I am afraid that they do not. Farming incomes have fallen by 75 per cent since 2011 and 59 per cent— I am sorry to interrupt you, Mr Mountain. I am getting strange signals. Could you like to tell me what's wrong? It's something that they can't hear properly over there, is that correct? We'll tell broadcasting, I'll give you an extra bit. Just sorry to continue. Sorry. No, I hope that you weren't missing my words. I can start again if you like. No, no, no, please. We heard it. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I start off from where I'm left. They don't. Farm incomes have fallen by 75 per cent since 2011 and 59 per cent of farmers make less than the minimum hour of cultural wage per hour. The dairy industry, as Prince Hat, is the best example where farmers just get such a low gate price, it doesn't reflect the effort that they put in. Without realistic prices for produce, farmers cannot invest and then increase their production to supply the needs of a growing food and drink sector. We must encourage our farmers and fishermen to get a fair price for what they produce. Processing and retailing, in my mind, must understand that they need producers, so they must reward them or production will surely stall and shrivel. I welcome the new strategy as identified that profitability must be a lot through the supply chain. It is always easy to declare your ambitions, but it is much harder to deliver to them. We need more detail on how that will be achieved. The Bank of Scotland's Food and Drink report for 2017 stated that 60 per cent of Scottish firms would be prepared to pay a higher price to primary producers based in Scotland to guarantee security of supply and maintain the providence of their products. We need to know how the Scottish Government will ensure that that happens. That brings me to my second point. The simplest way to ensure that farmed businesses can be more profitable is to create an environment that stimulates economic growth. That will not be possible under a business rate regime that disadvantages, in our mind, the hospitality and food and drink sectors. You cannot have your own cake and eat it. Restricted business rates are incompatible with high economic growth. I urge the Scottish Government to look again and try to take more action to reduce high business rates for the hospitality and food and drink industry. Thirdly and lastly, the Scottish Government and local government must make greater strides in supporting producers, sourcing quality Scottish food and drink. If we are serious about making Scotland a good food nation, we must ensure that the public sector leads the way in championing high-quality produce locally produced and delivering it to our schools and hospitals. That has been talked about in this Parliament since 2007. We do not seem to have progressed much. The 2014 procurement bill paved the way for the public sector to deliver on its promise and to source and serve local Scottish produce. Time to deliver. The Scottish Government has taught the talk, time to walk the walk and let's get results. The Scottish Conservatives welcome many of the ambitions of the 2030 strategy for the Scottish food and drink sector. The Scottish Government needs to understand that, to achieve the targets that we all want and Scotland needs, we must, first of all, ensure that primary producers are rewarded and are profitable and ensure that business rates for the sector don't stifle growth. Local produce becomes the first choice of us all, not only at home but in our schools and hospitals and wherever else they are supplied by the public and private sector. Food and drink is hugely valuable to the Scottish economy. We have a worldwide recognition for the quality of our produce. We must protect and build on that reputation because it leads to a premium price for our produce and so a better deal for all our producers. We have iconic products such as Scottish whisky, the Arbroath Smoky, Orkney Scottish Island cheddar and the Stornoway Black pudding, which have had a small part in protecting. Those premium products have rightly earned their place in the Foodie Hall of Fame, so much so that they need to be protected from those who would imitate the brand and thereby damage its status. Protection was one of the benefits that we got from being part of the European Union. The process began with a member state but ended up with European protection. I wonder what thought has been given to continuing that protection beyond Brexit as part of new trade agreements in Europe and indeed the wider world. Loss of protection for those brands could have a financial impact on the industries who have built a reputation for excellence by impacting on the premium that they currently earn. Much of our food is recognised as excellent due to the environment and our drive for sustainability. Our fish and meat comes from some of the most natural of origins that has recognised the world over. Again, much of that has been achieved by adhering to European legislation for environmental protection. Again, we must not allow that to be threatened by Brexit. We need to maintain and build on those standards of excellence and we must showcase our food locally as well. Not so long ago, it was difficult to source local produce in shops and restaurants. That has changed and local produce is becoming more available in our restaurants. However, there is still a lot of work to be done to make sure that it is available in shops so that local people and visitors can enjoy it alike. Turning to our amendment, too often tied pubs are limited in what they can sell. They are normally forced to sell the brand of beer produced by the brewery that owns the pub, and that does not necessarily meet customer demand. That beer is often sold to the licensi at an inflated price, cutting their profit margins as well as their customer's choice. We have all seen tourists asking for a local beer in a pub and also witnessed their disappointment at the lack of that choice. Many beer drinkers are akin to foodies when it comes to trying their local beer as part of their holiday experience. If it is not available, it will go elsewhere. It also leaves them with a bad impression of the whole area that they have been visiting. We also missed the opportunity to showcase our local beers, and that could lead to their expansion by opening up different markets. We have a growing industry in Scotland of artisanal breweries and should be helping them to grow their market share. My colleague Neil Bibby is looking to legislate against the excesses of tied pubs with the aim of providing more choice for customers and more leeway for the licensi. I hope that Neil Bibby will take the time and is winding up speech to explain a little more about what he is proposing in his bill and how it will benefit all those interested in protecting our pubs and the traditional social setting that they provide. However, our amendment to date does not go as far as his proposed bill, but it asks the Parliament to agree that Scottish beer should have a bigger share of the market. I turn to the other amendments. We agree with the Conservative amendment that we should be doing all that we can to remove barriers to growth. The Cabinet Secretary for Finance has said that he will consider a range of recommendations arising from the Barclay review in the forthcoming budget, so while we have sympathy with the position put by Edward Mountain, we will await their budget with interest and therefore will not support their motion at this time. The Liberal Democrat motion points out the limited membership of the national council for rural advisers and that is something that we too have been critical about. I cannot understand a cabinet secretary who represents in Vanessa Nairn appointing a council of advisers, none of whom live north of Perth. If he knows anything about his constituency, he surely understands the challenges of farming and crofting, and the food and drink industry are very different the further north you go now. The council is, as the Parliament asked, independent, so it does not cover every area, every sector or stakeholder interest. However, it does include, as its co-chair, Lorne Creeror, who, as Rhoda Grant well knows, is the chair of Highlands and Islands Enterprise, who has a home in the Highlands and who has impeccable knowledge and expertise about the whole range of the rural economy in the Highlands and Islands. He may have a home in the Highlands and Islands. He is not normally Highlands and Islands base, and he is not part of that industry. I think that what the people in the Highlands and Islands are missing is somebody who works in the food and drink industry in farming or crofting, who knows how difficult that is on the front line and can bring that knowledge and experience to the council. Therefore, because of that, we will be supporting the Liberal Democrat amendment tonight. We talk about the excellence and the premium given by our produce, but we need a food and drink strategy that looks at a right to food as well. Too many people are feeding their families out of food banks, not just those on benefits but those at work too, and we need to eradicate the need for food banks. People need an income that allows them to eat a nutritious diet. Too often, we see unhealthy food being cheap and available, while healthier alternatives are way out of the reach of some families. We see the growth of health conditions—indeed, conditions that we thought were long gone due to malnutrition. Something that our grandparents had thought they had eradicated and would be disappointed to see coming back. A living wage social security benefits at a level that allows parents to feed their children are surely something that we must all aspire to. Although we can rightly boast about wonderful produce, we need to make sure that all our citizens benefit from it. We have a similar debate to this every year during food and drink fortnight, and normally a nice debate giving everyone the opportunity to highlight excellence in their own constituencies. However, this year, our producers are facing real challenges such as cap payments and Brexit, which are all crucial to our food and drink industry. Therefore, we must find solutions to put this valuable industry back on a stable footing. I now call Mike Rumbles to speak to and move amendment 7.6 for 1.2. Mr Rumbles, seven minutes are thereabouts. As the three contributors to the debate so far have mentioned, Scotland's food and drink industry is a real success story. There are so many aspects to our food and drink industry that I want to concentrate on. In the short time, I have available on one important element of it the Scotch whisky industry. At the moment, the industry adds some £5 billion to Scotland's economy. It is particularly important to our rural areas, providing some 7,000 local jobs in areas where there may not be a vast array of alternative employment opportunities. I have had the pleasure over my years as an MSP from the north-east of Scotland of visiting several distilleries in my area, the latest of which was my local distillery at Gnethmont in Aberdeenshire. It is not just a number of direct jobs that are supported by whisky production but the added value to the tourist industry that it provides. It is a good thing that more and more distilleries are adding visitor centres to capture the tourist market. That has to be a good development for all concerned. After acknowledging the success story of our Scottish food and drink industry by particularly highlighting the contribution of Scotch whisky, I now want to turn my attention to the future of the food and drinks industry as a whole. I make no apology for now focusing on what I have been asking the Cabinet Minister for Rural Development to do for the last 15 months and to which my amendment today refers. As soon as the people of the UK voted to leave the European Union some 15 months ago, I urged the Cabinet Secretary to set up a group of experts to design a bespoke system of agricultural support for the future of our industry without delay. Back in January of this year, I was pleased when Fergus Ewing accepted my amendment in a debate calling for the setting up of such a group. It did not be a presiding officer. You were not in the chair at the time, but when Fergus Ewing mentioned—I did find it amusing when he mentioned that he said that it was me that had misinterpreted the amendment. It was actually my amendment, so I do not think that I misinterpreted it. Could it be that it is the Cabinet Secretary that does not listen properly? However, when he announced his national council of rural advisers at the Royal Highland show on June 22, I was somewhat disappointed to see the very narrow scope and backgrounds of the people that he chose. I want to say that all those people are worthy people in their field. I have no criticism of any of them being involved in the process, but yes, there is a but and it is a big but, but what a missed opportunity. Not only has it taken a year to establish such a group, wasting in the process valuable time, but Fergus Ewing has chosen them from a very narrow field. Where are the people from our environmental organisations, our consumer groups and other non-farming producers, such as Rhoda Grant mentioned, crofting? If we are to design a bespoke system of agricultural support for our food and drinks industry post Brexit, we need to ensure that everyone has a buy-in to it. If we choose a council of advisers from very similar backgrounds in the agricultural industry, forming an industry to design a new system, then I think that they are setting up to fail in this essential task that I do not want us to do. Yes, of course. Fergus Ewing? I agree with the sentiments that Mr Rumble says, but I do not agree that the membership of the national council of rural advisers is narrow in any way. I respectfully suggest that Mr Rumble has looked very carefully at the curriculum vitae of people who display distinction and eminence in a large number of areas. Although there are several farmers, they are people who look after the landscape. They are the custodians of the countryside to say that somehow there is an artificial divide between farmers and environmentalists is a tad unfair to farmers individually and collectively. However, I reassure Mr Rumble by saying that we have written, I have written to 236 stakeholders to ask them to contribute to this work. Scottish Environment Link has already done so. It is for the independent group to decide how to take forward the work when I meet them next week and to decide what to do, but they will, I believe, be likely to engage with the stakeholders. His motion did not say, Presiding Officer, back in January, that the group should comprise stakeholders. It said that we should involve stakeholders. That is what we have done, that is what we are doing and that is what we will do. I can allow you some extra time for a long intervention. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. It was indeed a long intervention, which I am happy that I took from the minister. I have in my hands the curriculum vitae of all the members of the council. If anybody cares to read them, they are all distinguished people. I have said already that I have no criticism of those people involved in the council, but they do come if you examine them carefully from a very narrow scope. He talked about the artificial divide. There is not an artificial divide, but what we need is inclusivity in here. We need consumer groups, we need environmentalist groups, not just from the focus that is here. I would urge Fergus Ewing to enter into the spirit of what I thought he had accepted back in January, that we need the contributions of experts from as wide a field as possible, but certainly including producer groups, environmental organisations and consumers to advise him on what is needed for the future of our food and drinks industry. It is not yet too late to enlarge the national council advisers to encompass experts in these fields. I am not arguing that people should be dropped from it, far from it. He needs to include people. We all want this to succeed. There is nobody in this chamber who wants this to fail. We want it to actually succeed, and the best way to make it succeed is to listen to others, minister, and to listen to what the groups who are all involved in this process have to say. If we all get by in, we will succeed. I urge him to change tack on this. Too much time has been wasted in this process. What we need from the cabinet secretary is action on this. I urge him to change his mind for the good of the food and drinks industry. We all want to see it succeed.  I am willy memed in my name. We now move to the open debate and speeches of four minutes, please. Graham Dede to be followed by Brian Whittle. Presiding Officer, earlier this week I visited Gruers, a farm shop in my constituency, to mark this year's Scottish Food and Drink Fortnight. It was a very appropriate choice. Innovation is a word that features repeatedly in the ambition 2030 strategy. Gruers is a farm business that epitomises innovation. In October 2014, they installed their first vending machine at East Adler Farm to answer local demand for their potatoes, utilising an accompanying suggestion box. Customers were quick to ask for a wider variety of fresh produce direct from the farm. Carrots, onions, broccoli and free-range eggs were quickly sourced from neighbours, friends and family to broaden the range. Three further vending machines were installed at Dronley Farm, where the shop was established in 2015, the Overgate Shopping Centre in Dundee and St John's Shopping Centre in Perth. Here, for me, is the best bit. The farm shop, which also offers a range of Scottish craft, gins, vodka and beers, makes an absolute virtue of the food miles travelled by the products on sale, providing a distance breakdown for each of the many items that have been sourced from within a 20-mile radius. Visit Gruers and you know that you are not just buying top-quality Scottish produce, you are supporting local businesses and sourcing products, which have not been travelled many tens, hundreds of miles, or worse still, left Scotland to be packaged before being returned here. Another innovator or entrepreneur, if you like my constituency, is Kim Cameron, the driving force behind the gin body and the cider body products. The strategy talks to the need for collaboration. Kim initially bought engine from a business in Perth. She is now working with Graham Jarron of Ogil Vivodka, based in nearby Glams, to produce her own base spirit and has expanded the business to establish the gin lardar in the outskirts of Ciri Newill, where visitors can experience gin tasting in a bothy setting, with all the traditional trappings. Gruers and Kim Cameron are not resting on their laurels either, mirroring the ambition of the strategy, both with plans to expand and in so doing tap into the tourism market. Scotland is blessed with so many innovators like those in the food and drink sector. I am sure that the afternoon folds will be reminded of that by contributions from other colleagues. Of course, innovation often needs to be enabled. I want to acknowledge the role of Government, national and local in that. Scotland Food and Drink, my colleague Richard Lochhead, who has served as ruler of the First Secretary in the last Parliament, and now Fergus Ewing deserve enormous credit for facilitating the growth of the sector. Let me take this opportunity also to place on the record my appreciation of the work done in my constituency by Angus Council officials, Alison Smith and Hilary Tascar, who have not only facilitated the boom in food and drink there, but driven it. The latest manifestation of the council's support for the food and drink offering of the county is the taste of Angus food charter, which aims to promote the use of local food through cafes, restaurants, public bodies, community groups, shops and individuals. It sets out to support local food and drinks businesses and farmers, create a healthier food culture in Angus, which will result in the availability of higher quality and tastier food for residents and visitors alike. Anyone can sign up all they need to do is pledge to make smaller, large changes in the food they buy, sell, cook or eat, thereby strengthening, among other things, the local economy, shorter supply chains and environmental sustainability. Presiding Officer, the strategy talks of the need to unlock the sector's potential by looking both outwards and inwards. We are going great guns and Angus in terms of businesses that are selling beyond Scotland and in some cases, well beyond Europe, but sitting alongside that, we are also seeking to raise awareness closer to home of what is on offer on our own doorstep. With the tourism boost expected to follow the opening of the V&A in Dundee, we are getting up to ensure that visitors to Angus are sampling the best of our food and drink offering with all the spin-off benefits that could have. We are also meeting the continuing challenges that are noted in the document around deepening collaboration, diversifying markets and customer bases, supporting resilience in the sector and driving forward sustainability. Achieving the growth ambitions of the strategy will require all parts of Scotland and every sector to raise their game still further. Angus is ready to do that. I am delighted to take this opportunity to speak in this important debate, and I would like to thank Fergus Ewing for setting me on a path of my interest in public food procurement, because it was during one of the many Brexit Tuesday debates last term that, daring to suggest that perhaps we should take the opportunity to look at the house sourcing of food and drink in the public procurement sector, the cabinet secretary got to his feet and puffed out his chest like all great orators do and could. I quote, Has Mr Whittle heard of Scotland Excel and is he aware of its work? Does he appreciate that the great many farming businesses recognised that Excel is a procurement policy ensure that to a great extent food produced is bought in Scotland from Scottish producers and farmers? I am not sure if the cabinet secretary did not know the details of the Scotland Excel contract or he was hoping that I would take my telling and drop it and leave it with my tail between my legs. However, suitably chastised, I did take some time to investigate where the food that we serve to our children in schools and patients in hospitals is sourced. Only to discover, as was ultimately reported on the BBC, large quantities of food and drink eminently available from our food producers is imported from around the world. Chicken from Thailand, flash-dried mashed potato or root vegetables and fruit and meat and dairy produce among the many products that are all imported. Although we legislate to ensure that our farmers produce the highest quality of food and we ensure that they pay their living wage, we charge them with the custodianship of the countryside and demand the highest animal welfare. The SNP government procurement policy through Scotland Excel prefers to purchase cheaper produce, not subject to the rules that we impose on our food producers. I would be delighted to do that. Thank you for his remarks. I remind him that, in the opening comments, I said that we have substantially increased the proportion, the percentage of locally sourced produce that is now procured in the public sector from 41 per cent to 48 per cent. Of course, that is not enough, but we are making considerable progress. Therefore, we can all surely unite in agreeing that the task is now to do even better. I look forward to the evidence to back that up. I think that the Deputy Presiding Officer rightly has an opportunity to scrutinise the health of our rural economy. Part of that scrutiny should focus within our own borders and what can be done to ensure that we support our fishermen and farmers wherever possible. We should also be looking at how our food is processed and packaged too much. It is shipped out of Scotland to be processed and packaged, only to be then imported back in again for consumption. Surely, we need to look at developing that capability here within our own shores. Not only will that type of approach deliver a better opportunity for our rural economy to establish the stability that it craves, it also has a major part to play in the long-term health strategy that Scotland so desperately needs. Locally produced high-quality food and drink making its way to the school and hospital kitchens and dining halls should be an obvious direction of travel for any Government. That debate rightly highlights the quality and high standard of food produced in Scotland. We are rightly proud of our global reputation in the food and drink sector. Why are we, as the Scottish Government, less than emphatic when it comes to putting that produce on Scottish tables? That is not just about what we eat at home, it is about our schools and hospitals or even our prisons. Places in which we are delivering nutritious high-quality locally sourced meals can have a real impact on things such as health, attainment and mental health. We know what can be done. Councils such as East Asia have a real focus on local procurement, but it is very much a case of that being the exception rather than the rule. We do not just hold our farmers to a high standard, we hold them up to the world for their excellence. While the world is impressed, our farmers struggle to get their produce in the school a mile down the road. Deputy Presiding Officer, food and drink are unquestionably a key part of the Scottish economy, but they are also a role to play in Scotland's health and even Scotland's identity. I urge the Scottish Government to take this opportunity to review the procurement policy for the benefit of our fishermen and farmers. Ambition 2030 Scotland's food and drink strategy is deliberately ambitious. At the moment, our food and drink sector is worth £14.4 billion, whisky and salmon are two biggest exports, but the strategy aims to double the value of the food and drink sector by 2030. So how do we do it? It is not without its challenges, but the key lies in collaboration. Thanks to the last 10 years of the Scotland Food and Drink Partnership, joint working in the industry has become commonplace and it is working. No longer do farming, fishing and other food and drink producers work alone in silos. They convene at trade shows throughout the EU and the world. They market themselves differently. They are Scotland PLC. Scotland's market is being promoted on the international stage. However, as I said, it is not without its challenges. The issue of skilled workers in the food and drink sector is one that needs to be addressed. Traditionally, attracting young people to work in the industry has been a demanding task. Looking ahead, as the cabinet secretary said, Skills Development Scotland estimates that there will be 27,000 job opportunities over the next 10 years, with a range of roles from practical hands-on to managerial posts. The question for many constituencies, including my own, is how to fill those job opportunities, particularly given the challenges that are posed by the UK leaving the EU. Scotland Food and Drink and Skills Development Scotland launched a skills investment plan in January that looks at how we can fill those jobs. It works with local schools to educate our young people on growing and cooking food and what careers are available in the industry. I was delighted last week to hear Minister for Employability and Training, Jamie Hepburn MSP, announce a foundation apprenticeship in food and drink. I had asked that very question of James Withers at the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee on 31 May. It is essential that we show our young people that a career in the industry is a valuable and rewarding one. One of the aims of the strategy, and also one of our manifesto commitments, is to move towards becoming a good food nation with the introduction of a good food nation bill. We want to see healthy, locally grown produce available for all. We want to see schools with allotments growing, cooking and selling their own produce, learning about where their food comes from and how it is produced. We want to see local healthy choices in our schools, hospitals and other public places, ethical sourcing, fresh seasonal local sustainable produce, and we want to inspire future generations to be proud of and to contribute to Scotland as a land of food and drink. As the strategy says, the key areas of a good food nation are health and wellbeing, environmental sustainability, local economic prosperity, resilient communities and fairness in the food chain. I have met and will continue to meet with producers, community groups, NGOs and individuals to discuss this bill. I spoke about it at our SNP conference last year. I met with Jamie Oliver a couple of weeks ago and we discussed possible ways forward and how Scotland can and does do things differently. As councillor Heather Anderson says, the attainment gap can only be closed by closing the nutrition gap. It is about land use, social justice, education and health. I think that the good food nation bill could be one of the most exciting and important pieces of legislation that we could pass in this Parliament. In the meantime, we need both public and private sector to come together to continue to grow the industry and realise our 2030 ambition. I call Mary Goujon to be followed by John Scott. Thank you, Presiding Officer. It is an absolute pleasure and I am absolutely delighted to take part in this debate today on food and drink because I think that it is impossible to talk about this sector and not be excited all the opportunities that are. I was a councillor with Angus Council in the past. I had responsibility for economic development for the local authority and had the absolute pleasure of working with the team that Graham Day mentioned, Alison Smith and Hilary Tascar. It was all about encouraging people and their businesses to visit, invest in and live in the region. A massive part of that work was to promote and sell the best of our products to the rest of Scotland and beyond, such as Glen Caddon whisky in my own hometown of Breachan, the Forfer Bridey, which I think described to one foreign audience as a meaty puff of heaven. If anybody still has not tried one of these meaty puffs of heaven and would like to do so, please contact me and I will sort you out. Now I represent part of Aberdeenshire 2 and I have even more to shout about in that region. We have quite simply some of the best produce to be found anywhere in the world and that is why I very much welcome the motion that is brought forward today. What I would like to focus on is what we can do locally within our own communities in terms of strengthening local food supply chains. Because while looking to international markets is of course vitally important, we have to look at strengthening the links between our farmers, fishermen, primary producers and getting their products to our communities so that people know about and choose the local produce and it is far more readily available and easy to find. This has been the ambition of an entirely innovative collective launch last year in Angus called the Food Life. The Food Life is a group of farmers, retailers, food vendors and educators who aim to promote the produce of the region to those who live there and to visitors, but they are not just about promotion of the product, it is about our health and encouraging a healthier way of life. To do that, they educate, they conduct their own pilot schemes and research because I do not think that we can consider food in terms of our rural economy alone and that is why I have been glad to hear health mentioned a few times today because it feeds into so many other areas and health is a vital part of that and I think that we could be doing more to make those links clearer. I was also pleased to hear Rhoda Grant mention some of the points that she raised in terms of food banks because what can we do to make sure that the people who can lease the for food and have to use food banks have access to fresh, healthy local produce? As well as holding their own markets and food events, the Food Life also looks at how to connect businesses to the local food supply chain and again that is why I was glad to hear some of the issues that have been raised by Brian Whittle because one massive stumbling block in achieving this has been the procurement process. Local companies with healthy fresh offerings who reach a block when trying to provide their product to say local schools and more needs to be done to address that and I welcome some of the comments that were made by the cabinet secretary in his opening statement today. We should be making it easier for local food producers to get their produce into our communities, getting them through the barriers that exist in local authorities, arms length organisations and the NHS. Of course I do not think that we can talk about the importance of the food and drink sector without talking about some of the challenges that we face with Brexit. There is the rural development programme worth £1.3 billion to Scotland, not to mention the importance of the European maritime and fisheries fund to our coastal communities. With those funding streams only guaranteed for the immediate future, we need to know what is going to come in their place. We also need to know what happens if we are no longer in the single market or the customs union, how will that affect getting our product to the market and beyond that is also the issue that hangs over our EU citizens, who come to work in the various areas within food and drink because it is an area that needs people. Angus alone, more than half of all people working in the agricultural sector at the moment, are expected to retire within the next 10 to 15 years. We need high levels of new entrants just to maintain the employment levels that we have at the moment, let alone what could be coming further down the line. Just to conclude, I would say that we are all lucky enough to be here representing constituencies in a country that is home to some of the best produce in the world. We have the product, the ambitions there. We just need to navigate some of the political obstacles that are coming to make this a real success. John Scott, to be followed by Emma Harper. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I begin by declaring an interest as a farmer and food producer, and I remind members of my interests in the development of farmers markets in Scotland. I am a paid-up member of the National Farmers Union of Scotland. I would like to begin by welcoming this debate on Scotland's food and drink strategy ambition 2030 and congratulate the Scottish food and drink industry on its remarkable success thus far. Our Husky industry leads the charge of success, and the enormous diversity of its product is one of its key strengths. Our fish farming industry had boosted output and profitability in the past year and sustained around 7,000 jobs in the most remote and peripheral parts of Scotland, vital in socioeconomic terms as well as food production. Our livestock farmers deliver world-class beef and lamb as well as sustain our landscapes and our environment. Congratulations are the order of the day to the industry and what it has achieved thus far. However, a point that I would like to make to the cabinet secretary is the very real threat to this remarkable success story, and that threat is the lack of profitability in the supply chain for the primary producer, and I welcome the cabinet secretary's remarks in this regard this afternoon. However, abattoirs across Scotland are having difficulty sourcing quality cattle because suckler herds are not profitable. Butter has now reached £6,000 per ton in price because dairy farmers have not had a decent return from the market for too long, alluded to by Edward Mountain. Sheep farming lacks profitability too, and those different sectors are all gradually reducing their output, which is a real risk to processors and retailers who so value the primary products, which gives them their provenance and marketing story to tell, but who nonetheless are not yet giving a fair share of the margin to the primary producers. However, on a more positive note, I believe that there is also a significant job to be done in developing the regionalisation of our food product. The French have been doing this for years, where the concept is elegantly known as terroir, which roughly translated means of the land or of the region. Wine from Bordeaux is different from wine from the Rhône, while teas from the Hots of Wa is different from teas from Brittany. It is the diversity of the product, which, as I have already noted, is the strength of our whisky industry that gives French food and wine its retailing market and strength. My point is that we too could and should develop this concept in our food industry in Scotland. Established brands such as Ayrshire Tatties are both smoky, Starnoway and Black Pudding, and the many others are the building blocks to further develop this concept. The reality is that regional diversity adds to the food-buying choice and experience for our customers at home and abroad, as well as adding provenance and therefore value to what is being sold. Again, I welcome Fergus Ewing's intentions in this regard that he announced this afternoon. Developing the purchasing experience for our customers gave farmers markets the boost that allowed them to become established again in Scotland. That enhanced experience should be further developed and billed on by creating covered producer markets, as is found in almost every sizeable town in France and Spain. Use the magnificent food hall at the Highland show as a template and create cooperative ventures through SAOS, on permanent sites in Glasgow and Edinburgh and get the ball rolling and shorten the supply chain from Farngate to Plate. Gail Ross is absolutely right to suggest that that will be done by more co-operation and collaborative working. In addition, there are barriers to be removed, such as punitive levels of business rates, for example levied on our livestock auction marks and processing plants. There are, as others have said, too few new entrants coming into both the farming and the processing sector as unemployment falls and competition grows to persuade young people to make a career through apprenticeships in our dynamic food-producing processing and retail sector. However, there are obstructions that can be overcome, and the willingness of the industry to play its part is a credit to them. Now, the Government must do its part to further remove barriers to growth and help to create an incentivised fiscal framework to allow the track record of success to continue to grow. I remind members that I am the parliamentary liaison officer to the cabinet secretary, Mr Ewing. As Scotland's food and drink industry is closely linked with tourism, I will also refer members to my register of interests as part owner of a bed and breakfast before I continue. Our food and drink industry in Scotland is vital to the rural economy and I am delighted to welcome the Scottish Government's ambitious plan to expand it further. Building our nation's brand will be key to achieving the same. Many people are becoming increasingly aware of how important the provenance and sustainability are to the industry. I recently read a survey from DEFRA that showed seven out of 10 people said that buying sustainable food is important, but yet only 30 per cent of those folks buy sustainable produce. The key reason for that is because a third of those people are not sure how to choose sustainable food products and are confused by labelling. That indicates the importance of education and clear labelling, including country of origin labelling. Country of origin labelling was an issue raised with me by NFU leadership this summer. I will respond for Madame Gougeon. In South Scotland region, we also have fantastic produce, produced by extremely talented and innovative people whose invaluable contribution to the local economy is to be credited. I thank them all. Those products, in many cases, have international appeal because of their quality, provenance and taste, and I would like to highlight just some. Gallowee beef from one of the world's longest established breeds of beef cattle, loch rhaen oysters from Scotland's oldest oyster fishery, award-winning beer from Sulwath brewery, and members may be surprised to know that Garaher tea garden is growing and blending tea in Dumfries and Gallowee. Our award-winning dairy produce is wide-ranging from fresh milk, amazing ice cream, and specialist cheeses and yoghurt. I would be remiss if I did not mention Ayrshire Tatties, but John Scott got there first. I look forward to sampling all of those and many more products at the upcoming Kirkwbryd Food Festival next month, but before that I have the Stranraer Oyster Festival this weekend as part of the Food and Drink Fortnight, the first of its kind in Scotland, where my new friend, Hardip Sincoli, has promised to teach me how to properly eat oysters. The South West has whisky distilleries, too, with bladdener-free berth and annondale, and that's Scotch whisky, not UK whisky, just to remind everybody. And a brand new gin distillery by the crafty crew at Newton Stewart. So we have some great produce in our neck of the woods as well. I would be happy to take the cabinet secretary on a wee D&G tasting tour if he cares to come maybe next summer. It's key to unlocking the £30 billion potential and supporting the workforce. Our farmers, fishermen and women, growers, pickers and all those working in our agricultural sector, it's really important. And I'm sure many of my colleagues across chambers spent the summer recess visiting farms and attending many agricultural events and speaking to the farmers at the front line. I found that the future of staffing on many of the dairy farms is a huge concern. In South West Scotland, there's 48 per cent of Scotland's dairy farms, and many of the dairy farm employees are EU citizens that have chosen to stay here and make it their home. Those workers are worried about the future because the UK Government does not identify the rural workforce as skilled. And those people are skilled. When I spoke with Andrew McCormick recently on this matter, he told me, the NFUS considers that those agricultural workers are competent and skilled, and I would agree with that. Presiding Officer, as we face the hard-warring realities of Brexit, we must do everything possible to support our rural industries to become more sustainable and resilient, which is exactly what I plan to do as we work towards achieving the Government's plan for Scotland's food and drink 2030 and beyond. Clare Baker, followed by Willie Coffey. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Let me see at the outset how supportive I am of the publication of Ambition 2030. It is great to see this level of partnership working within the food and drink sector, and the bodies are to be commended for the commitment and recognition of the benefits of working together. I am immensely proud of Scotland's farmers, fishermen, food manufacturers, distillers and brewers, innovators and retailers for the hard work that they do and the contribution that they make to our daily lives, as well as our culture and our economy. As an MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, I get ample opportunity to recognise excellence with a high number of food producers and retailers on my doorstep. Our businesses are often highly placed in food and drink awards, and most recently I am delighted to see Tom Courts butchers in Brant Island being announced as a finalist in the UK butcher shop of the year, and I wish them all the best in the competition. They are a great example of a high street retailer and have been part of the revival of Brant Island High Street, which now has a food and veg shop and a fish monger among many other independent retailers. Ambition 2030 recognises the progress that has been made over the past decade, but we have seen the sector grow into an increasingly important part of our economy. It mirrors an international trend with a greater interest in providence, in health and reputation and innovation in food and drink. It has been an important part of our international image and has shown the effectiveness of collaborative working, and I support its efforts to sustainably grow the sector and take advantage of opportunities. I could go on praising the sector and the Food and Drink Federation's reception last week gave me a chance to talk to members about new products, strong brands and the innovative techniques that they were pursuing. The document recognises the importance of flexibility and the need to address challenges. In the short time that I have, I wanted to raise a few issues that we need to be alert to. Ambition 2030 recognises the importance of reputation. It is a strong asset, but the horse meat scandal of a few years ago was a wake-up call to everyone. We do have a strong sector, but it is reliant on having confidence in the regulatory system. There have been big changes to the number and practice of meat inspectors, and we know that the number of environmental health officers has reduced, and they work under pressure where they are more often reacting to situations than being able to do more preventative work. We need a balance, and I appreciate that, by and large, the risk is low, but if reputation is at all threatened, it can be very damaging to the sector, so we need to make sure that our systems are robust. Of course Brexit will have a significant impact on the food and drink sector. The future is uncertain. I recently heard a report about the need for our dairy farmers to diversify. Most of our dairy products are imported, and there will be a need to increase productivity in different products. We also do not know the extent of Brexit, and in many of our cream products such as whisky and salmon, we are operating in an international market. In all the discussion around immigration and movement of people, we need to recognise how reliant the agricultural sector is on European workers. Producers find it difficult to employ Scots to do those jobs. In the food processing sector, I continually hear from food manufacturers that they struggle to recruit, even though they are paying fair wages and offering attractive terms. We need to make sure that the sector is attractive as a career, and I am pleased to see the emphasis on that in the document, but we need to emphasise to the UK Government the importance of the EU workforce in the sector at all levels and the need to accelerate programmes to present it as a positive clear choice. Finally, the document recognises the need to work with the Government and industry to support improvements in diet and nutrition. I know that a lot of work has been done on reformatting products, and that is to be welcomed. However, we need improvements in consistency on healthy eating messages and food labelling. Although there is largely a celebratory debate, I always find it challenging to talk about food abundance in Scotland while recognising the number of people who are suffering from food poverty and relying on food banks to be increasing. Of course, that is about poverty and not about the food sector, but we need to value a food sector that offers quality and affordability, recognising that many of the products that we celebrate today are not always within every family's income bracket, but that the benefits of a good food nation should be available to everyone in Scotland. Willie Coffey, followed by George Adam. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. The motion celebrates the achievements of Scotland's food and drink sector and the huge contribution that it makes to Scotland's economy. It recognises its ever-growing international reputation for quality. In supporting this, there is a fantastic local story to tell from Ayrshire and the part that Ayrshire plays in this growing reputation for world-class food and drink. Only last weekend, I had the privilege of attending the New Mills Food Festival in the wonderful part of my constituency, the Loudon Valley. I was astounded at the size of the festival only in its second year, but we saw over 4,000 visitors coming to the Tentad village in the local Jimison park. They were able to enjoy a wide range of locally produced food, including chilli from Finnic, ice creams from Galston, speciality canopies from businesses in Kilmaroc, and some amazing cake creations from New Mills itself. There are many hot food demonstrations taking place from a number of creative local businesses with tasting sessions, too, and all with the chance to wash it down with some ethical ills from Mochlan. Scotland is well represented with stalls from all over the country, showcasing some fantastic produce in fish meets cheeses and even some interesting jins that seem to be attracting the attention of several of the visitors. Transport was provided to bring people to the event, and local people acted as stewards for the day to help deliver a spectacular event, which has certainly put New Millens on the good food map of Ayrshire. The organisers, who are all volunteers and the contributors, are to be congratulated for their efforts. That same weekend, we had a European market, again principally showcasing quality local and European foods, and we know that the market attracts around 40,000 visits to the town centre to enjoy that kind of experience. I wanted to start with those local stories, because they typify the excellent work that is going on in this crucial sector of our economy. None of that is a happy accident, of course, because we can trace the reasons behind the success of those events to some of the impressive work that has carried out in Ayrshire for a number of years now. Ayrshire has been a pioneer in the localising of the supply chain and procurement of food since 2003, focusing on cooking from fresh using local produce, linking that to employment, food education, healthy eating and even reducing CO2. Ayrshire's approach effectively became the benchmark for good practice, particularly in school meals provision, not just in Scotland but across Europe. When food for life emerged, Ayrshire was one of a small handful in the public or private sector in the UK to be awarded its gold standard for quality school meals. Indeed, it has consistently met that standard for 10 years. That gold standard means that a service has to demonstrate that the spend is split among organic fair trade, quality meat Scotland, outdoor rear pork and a few other criteria, as well as there is a fair trade component to that, too. It is not always exclusively about 100 per cent local produce. There is a commitment to support fair trade nations in the products that they can supply. We can also find several commendations for the work done by Ayrshire by no less than the United Nations and its various documents on the power of public procurement. It includes those commitments to sourcing from fair trade nations, and it is not all about exclusive local sourcing. I am pleased to hear the cabinet secretary mention that the programme for government will be another further investment of more than £1 million in the food for life programme to encourage more or all of our 32 local authorities to achieve that catering hallmark in their schools, too. The national strategy sets a very ambitious target to double the value of this industry just beyond the next decade. There are about 115,000 or so people in Scotland directly working in the industry, with the prospect of another 20,000 coming along soon in the next decade, too. Colleagues have already touched on some of the risks to the success of the strategy if we do not solve the impending labour issue, where many thousands of people come from Europe and work here in Scotland within the sector in much the same way as thousands of Scottish and UK citizens will also work in Europe. Let us hope that we can persuade the UK Government and its deliberations with our European partners that this is a crucial mutual benefit that enriches all of our cultures and benefits all of our economies equally if we achieve that. I am confident that Scotland's reputation as a world-class producer of food and drink will continue to go from strength to strength. Thank you. The last of the open debate contributions is from George Adam. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I am always glad to make a speech in Scotland's food and drink because it gives me a chance to talk about the great town of Paisley and far beat for me to be parochial, but you will be well aware of my pride in my hometown. It is always good to remind the chamber of how our town has contributed to Scotland's many successes. First, I listened carefully to Willie Coffey and, in particular, to John Scott when he spoke about farmers' markets and Ayrshire farmers. John never mentioned the famous Paisley farmers' market, which is full of produce from Ayrshire and the Ayrshire farmers as well. That is one important part that John Scott has not mentioned when he talked about the work that he has done in the field. However, I would also like to talk about Pirelli ice cream, which is the home of luxury Italian ice cream. It is the previous winners of the Renfrewshire Chamber of Commerce family business of the year. The company was set up in 1925 when Gerardo Pirelli immigrated to Scotland from southern Italy. He settled in Paisley and brought ice cream using traditional recipes from his homeland. He now produces high-quality Italian ice cream in his state-of-the-art facility in Paisley. Pirelli produces 6,000 litres of quality product every day, providing it to the catering trade, frozen wholesayers, cash and carries and multiple retailers. There are one of many successful small businesses in the town. Paisley has seen an increase during part of the excitement generated by Paisley's bid for the UK city of culture, but there has been an increase in the good quality venues for food and drink throughout the town. Many of those businesses are small to medium-sized businesses and will be a very important part of the regeneration of Paisley town centre. However, bringing people back into the town centre is extremely important, and that is where they can help. You can have your massive chain stores all support the local independent businesses in my area. In drink, we have Kelvin Brewery, who, as a small specialist brewery, provides an award-winning product. Although the business is based in Barhead, the owners' hearts will remain forever in Paisley as they live in my constituency. It is run by Derek Moore and his son Ross and daughter Karen, and they are constantly competing at various ale festivals throughout Scotland in winning and regular occasions. Our local airport, paradoxically called Glasgow International Airport, now promotes Scottish products in its record-breaking numbers of visitors that attend there as well. We also have Scotland's largest relay festival in Paisley town hall, and sometimes being Paisley's member of the Scottish Parliament can be a difficult job, but on that occasion it is one that I relish to do as well. However, when we talk about food and drink in Scotland, it is not just, as I said earlier, about a multimillion pound larger companies. It is about supporting these small independent companies, and that is why I welcome the Scottish Government's commitment to invest in new targeted supplier development programme to enable more food and drink suppliers to compete for public contracts. That is an issue that often comes up with smaller businesses. To facilitate attendance at trade fairs, showcase Scotland in particular, and encourage public sector buyers and catering managers to attend, ensuring that supply chains for manufacturers and buyers are closer together. I could have mentioned a number of food and drink brands that owe their very existence to the town of Paisley, but instead I led with a small family business of Italian descent that has served and employed Paisley bodies for 92 years. As we look forward to what Scotland can achieve in the worldwide food and drink industry, let us remember the smaller companies that continue to produce excellent quality product here in Scotland. That was a bit of a delayed reaction there. We now move to the closing speeches, and I hope that anyone who has contributed to the debate and is not already in the chamber is running here right now. First of all, can I call Mike Rumbles, please? Up to five minutes. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. This has been a good debate this afternoon. I know that a lot of times you say that, but this generally has been a good debate. All contributors took the opportunity to highlight the successes of the food and drink industry in their own constituencies and regions, and quite right too. I would like to comment on summing up on some of the contributions this afternoon. I cannot mention everybody, but I would like to highlight some of them. I would like to agree with Fergus Ewing. He is not here to hear me say that. I would like to agree—oh, he is at the back. I probably cannot hear me anyway. I would like to agree with Fergus Ewing. I would like to agree with him all the time, but that is not possible. He said that the bedrock of our industry is about primary producers—our farmers, fishermen and crofters. Of course it is, but it is indeed more than that. That is, of course, the focus of my amendment tonight. We all want to see the Government's food and drink strategy succeed. That is why we need to ensure that our producers, environmentalists and our consumers really do need to be part of designing a new bespoke system of agricultural support. Edward Mountain championed the high-quality produce locally produced and delivered a well-crafted and measured contribution to this debate. The Liberal Democrats will be supporting his amendment this evening at decision time. Rhoda Grant, we need to showcase our local produce too often. Our pubs are limited on what they can sell. Her amendment is a good one, designed to increase the share of Scottish-brewed products in Scotland's pubs. The Liberal Democrats are very happy to support the Labour amendment. Graham Day took the opportunity to highlight the successes and innovation of the food and drink industry in his angus constituency. Brian Whittle, our food and drink strategy should have a lot to do with our health strategy—absolutely right! Nutritious food for our hospitals, schools, for instance. Gayle Ross, the issue of skilled workers in the food and drink industry needs to be addressed. How to fill these job opportunities, especially leaving the EU? We need to show our young people that a career in the industry is a valuable and rewarding one. Marie Gougeon—I hope I got that right—was clearly excited about promoting and selling our local produce for her constituency of Angus North and the Mends. She was so enthusiastic about this that she was smiling, and she is now almost throughout her contribution. She mentioned that she now represented the Mends, and as I used to be the constituency member for the Mends before the Boundary Commission came along, I concur what a great place it is to. I hope that my amendment to the Government's motion is supported by Parliament tonight. I hope that the Cabinet Secretary will not in a future debate turn round in eight months' time and say, as he did earlier on today, that I had misinterpreted my own amendment. My amendment tonight, just like my amendment accepted by Parliament in January, was not prescriptive. It is not, but it was clear. Just as my amendment tonight is clear, this National Council of Rural Advisers does not meet the expectations that were agreed by Parliament on 19 January, and it urges the Scottish Government to expand it to include the broadest possible range of experts and stakeholders, including producers, environmentalists and consumer groups. In designing a bespoke system of agricultural support, Scotland will need, particularly in the event of Brexit, for the food and drinks strategy to be a success. We have got to design a new system, and we really need to make sure that everybody has a buy-in to it. Only by that can a new system be designed that will succeed. Cabinet Secretary, my amendment should be clear enough and cannot, in my view, possibly be misinterpreted. I welcome the opportunity to close the debate on Scotland's food and drink strategy on behalf of Scottish Labour. I agree with Mike Rumbles that this has been a very good debate. Every contribution has been excellent and has been a wide range of contributions. Members are talking about local produce that they have a knowledge of, and I have got to say that I am feeling quite hungry after all the chat about food today. George Adam made an excellent point about Pirelli's ice cream from Paisley, and there are a number of other important contributions today. Rhoda Grant made excellent points on food poverty, Brian Whittle about local procurement, Gail Ross and Claire Baker about nutrition, Willie Coffey about fair trade and many others. One of the key points that we can all agree on today is that Scotland's world-renowned food and drink is as an integral to our culture and identity as our music, our sport and our heritage. As Rhoda Grant said, we know that Scotland already produces some of the most sought after natural produce in the world. Not only do we export food and drink far and wide, but people come from far and wide to experience it here in Scotland. Scotland's coastal communities also provide produced quality fish and shellfish. We are now one of the largest seafood producers in Europe. We have such impressive natural resources that it is little wonder that food and drink is our fastest-growing export sector, but we should not just pat ourselves on the back, we can and must do more. The food and drink strategy acknowledges that it aspires to build upon Scotland's developing reputation as a land of food and drink to grow tourism as well as increase sales and exports. It has been said that the strategy has an ambitious target to double the turnover in the sector by 2030. That would make food and drink Scotland's most valuable industry, and as we have heard, collaboration is vital to achieving that aim. The strategy is right to say that the industry must deepen collaboration along the whole supply chain from end to end, and the strategy is also right to say that we must diversify our markets and our customer base as that will support resilience in the sector. I will speak more about those points in relation to the brewing industry later. A number of members, such as Clare Baker, Rhoda Grant and Mary Gougeon, have mentioned Brexit in this debate today, and they are right to raise concerns about the impact that it could have. We believe that we need to see a Brexit deal that prioritises jobs and the economy. It is well established that whisky is Scotland's biggest export, currently accounting for 80 per cent of Scotland's food and drink export market, and it is vital that the interests of whisky industry and others are represented in the Brexit negotiations. In addition to whisky, the brewing and distilling industry in Scotland continues to manufacture new products. Scotland is becoming a world-leading producer of craft beers and butique gins. In the last year alone, there was a 50 per cent spike in gin producers, whilst the brewing industry saw the growth of 20 additional small or micro breweries. There are now over 120 breweries in Scotland producing a wide variety of specialist beers, including Arran brewery, Lochloman brewery and Kelvin brewery, as George Adam mentioned in my own region. No matter what part of the country you are from, you can choose to visit your never far from a good local beer. The purpose of Labour's amendment today is to agree that we should increase the share of Scottish brewed products in our pubs. It is important that the Scottish Government and other agencies take measures to encourage pubs to sell locally brewed products. One of the measures that we propose is reforming the Tide pub sector in Scotland. As Rhoda Grant said, the contractual agreements between pubs and their pub company owners can require that they stock certain products, often multinational brands, and means that they cannot source beers directly from local brewers. The campaign for real ale and others believe that the model unfairly disadvantages smaller local brewers who find themselves blocked out of the Tide pub sector. It has been estimated that over £30 million could be leaving the Scottish economy every year as a result of the Tide pub model. I am proposing a member's bill on Tide pubs because there are basic issues of fairness for publicans, but I am also doing it because if we are serious about giving Scottish consumers more choice and we are serious about supporting jobs in the brewing industry, then we should reform Tide pubs. We should allow pubs the freedom to source locally brewed products on the open market and help them to support our local economies. I am pleased to say that the proposal has received backing from CAMRA, the Scottish Licensed Traders Association, the Federation of Small Businesses, the Scottish Tourism Alliance and GMB Scotland, as well as many Tide publicans and brewers in constituencies across Scotland. They all believe that such a proposal would be good for Scotland's brewers, pubs and economy, and I hope that we can receive cross-party support in the chamber going forward. In closing, I will just quote directly from the strategy. Political upheavals such as Brexit bring uncertainty. They always do, but we cannot sit back and wait for camel waters. Our competitors will not do that. There is much in our world that we cannot control, but also much that we can. That sums up not only the strategy, but the tone of debate from members to them. Peter Chapman, up to seven minutes, please. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Once again, I refer members to my register of interest. That has been a good debate on the whole consensual and good humour. That debate is timely, coming as it does during food and drink fortnight, when we celebrate and promote Scotland's reputation as a source of some of the finest food and drink found anywhere in the world. We have indeed a fine story to tell. The Scotland Food and Drink Partnership was launched in 2007, and it is a membership-based organisation founded by industry and the public sector and led by a young, talented and energetic chief executive in James Withers. In the 10 years to 2017, it has had great success in growing our food and drink sector and raising the profile of the industry. Since 2007, industry turnover has up 44 per cent to £14 billion, exports have risen by 56 per cent to £5.5 billion. The sector employs 119,000 people and the sector has grown at twice the rate of the rest of manufacturing in Scotland. However, the target now is ambitious. The target is to build on that successful base and double the turnover to £30 billion by 2030. That past success and our ability to meet the new target is dependent on continuing the model of collaboration right across the supply chain, sharing progress and best practice to help smaller businesses to grow, unlocking new marketing opportunities and uniting behind a joint mission to grow the business. Our reputation and our brand has been our strongest asset. Scotland is rightly seen right across the world as a producer of the best food and drink, underpinned by our focus on provenance and quality. Brian Whittle stressed in his contribution that this and agreed and argued that the Scottish Government must do more to supply our fine food to our schools and our hospitals and our care homes, etc. Diversity is also one of our assets. We are blessed with a diverse, natural larder and a diverse business base. We are fortunate to have some of the richest fishing grounds in the world, and our fine fish, crabs and lobsters are in great demand, and farmed salmon is our biggest food export, and it is found on the finest menus worldwide. Our fishermen are at last enjoying good catches and good prices, and there is an optimism in the sector and that is not seen for many long years. There is whisky. Whisky is worth £5 billion to the economy and is actually 80 per cent of our food and drink exports, worth £4 billion. It is indeed the UK's largest net contributor to our balance of trade. Whisky production supports 40,000 jobs across the UK and employs 7,000 in remote, rural parts of Scotland. It spends £1.7 billion on its supply chain, 80 per cent of which is spent in Scotland. Whisky is a great success story, absolutely, and its future is bright as the premium alcoholic drink across the globe. You might be surprised that I have not mentioned farming yet. Our farmers are, of course, a vital part of the food and drink success. Farmers produce much of their own material on which the rest of the chain depends, be it melting barley for whisky or beef, lamb or pork, produced to some of the highest ethical and welfare standards in the world. Similarly, our dairy products, cheese, yogurt and butter, or our fruit and veg, which, of course, are finding ready markets at home and abroad, and they are celebrated for their great taste. We have many of the finest farmers found anywhere, skilled, hard-working, innovative and determined, but that hard work and that skill is poorly rewarded. That truth was recognised by my colleagues John Scott and Edward Mountain and, indeed, it was also recognised by the cabinet secretary, Fergus Ewing. Much more of the success of our food and drink sector needs to flow down to the primary producer, who supplies the raw material on which it all depends. I am fed up saying it and I wish it wasn't true, but our official government statistics tell us that the average income for Scottish farmers was only £12,600 last year. That is £12,600 after receiving their cap support, a pittance for all that hard work and innovation. That is well below the minimum wage for a 40-hour week, let alone a 60- or 70-hour week that most of our farmers work. We have had many rows across this chamber in the past 18 months about IT systems and delays in vital cap money, but every farmer I can tell you now would forgo that money tomorrow if he could only get a fair return from the marketplace. I wonder whether that will ever happen. I hope to see it, but I don't know. I am enthusiastic for the £30 billion target by 2030. By growing our food and drink industry, more will be demanded of our farmers. Supply and demand tells me that should result in better prices. Exports have been a success for our industry, but we must never forget that our biggest and best market is our home market in Scotland and the rest of the UK. 90 per cent of the beef that we produce in Scotland is exported, and 90 per cent of that export goes into England. Our internal single market is vital, and we need to remember that during all the talk around Brexit. This has been a good debate, consensual and optimistic for the most part, and I have enjoyed listening to it and taking part in it. If only I had a drama to add to this water, the toast would be here's to future success. I think that that is a habit that we will not try to get into. I call on Fergus Ewing to close this debate. Nine minutes please, cabinet secretary. I do not know if I will get myself in trouble, but that is a very unfortunate ruling. This has been an excellent debate, as many members have said, and it is great to see recognition across the chamber of the great success story that is Scotland's food and drink. I think that the support for the new strategy of Scotland's food and drink ambition is 230. I think that the fact that there is such broad-based support for that strategy bodes well in helping us to move towards achieving it. I was also pleased to hear that so many members are paying tribute to producers and local businesses, particularly farmers and fishermen, who are very often left out of the narrative. I think that that was not the case today, as Mr Chapman illustrated us and many others. I was pleased that Mr Rumbles focused on the whisky industry, a great success story for Scotland, and not only the big boys at where, but also the craft distillers and the flourishing of the distillation of fine Scottish gins. I am delighted that bodies such as HIE have managed to support in a concrete way the creation of the new distilleries around the country, but particularly in the Highlands and Islands, which I especially welcome. I was pleased that James Withers and his team at Scotland, Food and Drink, had tribute paid to them, and I would echo that. I want to run through quickly some of the Scottish Government's specific support for the sector. £65 million through our food processing and marketing co-operation grant scheme supporting 220 projects. £85 million allocated through the European Fisheries Fund to support 1,000 seafood and fisheries projects. I visited Scrabster a week ago last Monday to give financial support to the ice factory there, which will help Scrabster to maintain and strengthen its position as the UK's second-largest whitefish port. £3.5 million to support the delivery of the Scottish export plan led by SDI-3 million to support Connect Local, the advisory services for micro-businesses. A £3 million investment in education-related projects, including the successful food for life programme operating in schools across Scotland with East Ayrshire's Willie Coffey, said that it is really leading the way in this regard. I will be celebrating the 10 years of success with them in November. A £1 million community fund to support producers and communities to celebrate local food through events. Mr Scott made a good point about looking to regionalise our effort in that regard generally in many ways. That is something that we will look at carefully and be happy to work with him on that. A £10 million investment in industry to support the delivery of Ambition 2030. We have also worked with retailers, with the business and with primary producers. Credit is due to many of them. For example, the co-op in Morrison's is committed to sourcing 100 per cent of its fresh meat from the UK and Scotland. What a good example. I hope that the others will look carefully at that. Often the difficulty about that is practical. The difficulty of getting enough meat on the shelves from producers reliably day after day. We are all aware of those important practical matters. BidFood, committed to doubling the value of its Scottish range, Aldeys has reduced its payment terms to suppliers from 33 days to 14 days. Payment in 14 days benefitting 90 small businesses in Scotland. That is a great thing. M&S, committed to stocking Scottish lamb all year round. Brian Whittle mentioned local sourcing first. He made an interesting and valuable contribution to that. Of course, there are some things that are difficult to source, and that was highlighted by the BBC. Poultry, for example, is typically more expensive in Scotland and supply is not sufficient for our needs, not even for the supermarkets. That is a practical matter that constrains the ability for us to supply all the needs. I will certainly give way. Brian Whittle I thank the cabinet secretary for allowing me intervention. Will he agree that it is a supply and demand issue here? If you create the demand, our Scottish farmers will feed into that and supply to that. Cabinet secretary? I am a supporter of a regulated market. The point is that there is not enough Scottish chicken produced to meet demand. Much of it is bought by the main retailers and they cannot get enough, but discussions are on-going with primary producers with the potential for upscaring production, something that we both wish to see. Scottish cheese is bought with a public sector. Much is bought and imported from Ireland. That is due to cost. It has a wide range of commodity, i.e., cheaper products, whereas Scotland produces more high-value premium. That is something that I know is being looked at carefully. The point that I am making is that these are partly business, partly commercial matters, where practical considerations apply. I do not think that we can make it mandatory to buy Scottish or British. I do not think that that would be practical. For example, food and vegetables are excellent in Scotland, high-quality, but they are not available all year round. One must bear in mind the practicalities here. However, what we have done in the local sourcing issue is a number of things. I think that it was Mary Dujall who said that the importance of obtaining accreditation status for businesses that can get into procurement contracts. We have a programme that is working intensively with 30 businesses to increase their capacity. We are investing £100,000 in that. The expansion of the Food for Life programme investing £400,000 will be a key factor in driving more local sourcing. We are doing a number of other things to promote local sourcing of food. In terms of marketing, our 2017 national showcasing Scotland event is being held in a couple of weeks in Perthshire. Over 160 businesses will be showcasing their products to over 120 international and domestic buyers. We will replicate the model by having regional showcasing events across Scotland, and more details of that will follow in due course. The success abroad has been considerable. I gave some examples earlier. For example, in August, other examples are that, in the USA, Mulliff Contire Cheddar was launched over 1,100 public stores in the south-east states of the USA. In Hong Kong, a Scottish gin company is expected to sell 1.5 million of products over the next three years. The enormous opportunity exists for Prestwick Airport in terms of being one of the freight hubs in Scotland to export our high-quality produce as opportunities grow. I am happy to agree to, in that much delayed intervention from Mr Scott, and I am happy to work with him there on end. We also want to focus on the UK market. There is 50 million in England and 10 million in London alone. That is an important market, and we are Scotland Food and Drinkers to publish an action plan setting out a further range of measures there. Brexit has been mentioned by many. Of course, the threat to loss of the essential skilled labour and unskilled labour that serves in the food and drink industry is clear. In the soft fruit and veg sector, we have 15,000 non-UK seasonal workers employed in Scottish farms. Angus soft fruits have expressed concern about that. In the bakery trade, one-third are EU nationals. In seafood processing, 70 per cent from the EU, a survey of the Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers, showed that 52 per cent of their unskilled workforce and 44 per cent of the skilled workforce come from the EU. John Scott rightly mentioned the sustainability of Scottish abattoirs in terms of the amount of livestock that they receive, but there is also the fact that maybe 90 per cent of the ovies that are necessary for the functioning of abattoirs come from the EU. I do not want to make political points in this debate, but there is a real worry about the continued availability of labour. Frankly, the sooner we have clarity on that issue, frankly, the better. I think that this has been an excellent debate today. I am grateful to all members who have contributed, and I look forward to seeing even greater success in the Scotland food and drink sector. That concludes our debate on Scotland's food and drink strategy. We move now to decision time, and there are four questions today. The first question is that amendment 7.641.3, in the name of Edward Mountain, which seeks to amend the motion 7.641, in the name of Fergus Ewing, on Scotland's food and drink strategy, be agreed. Are we all agreed? We are not agreed. We will move to a division and members may cast their votes now. The result of the vote on amendment 7.641.3, in the name of Edward Mountain, is yes, 32, no, 64. There were 15 abstentions. The amendment is therefore not agreed. The next question is that amendment 7.641.1, in the name of Rhoda Grant, which seeks to amend the motion in the name of Fergus Ewing, be agreed. Are we all agreed? Yes. We are agreed. The next question is that amendment 7.641.2, in the name of Mike Rumbles, which seeks to amend the motion in the name of Fergus Ewing, are we all agreed? No. We are not agreed. We will move to a vote and members may cast their votes now. The result of the vote on amendment 7.641.2, in the name of Mike Rumbles, is yes, 53, no, 59. There were no abstentions. The amendment is therefore not agreed. The final question is that motion 7.641, in the name of Fergus Ewing, has amended on Scotland's food and drink strategy, be agreed. Are we all agreed? Yes. We are agreed. That concludes decision time. I close this meeting.