BRITISH food and drink exports have grown to nearly £19 billion with 112 new export markets opening in the past year, according to the Government.
Farmers leaders' will be told today there has been a rise of nearly £180 million in the food and drink sector to non-EU markets.
Farming Minister George Eustice is to claim that Government action to cut red tape, get the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) right, encourage innovation and safeguard plant and animal health have helped potential growth.
In his speech to the National Farmers' Union (NFU) conference in Birmingham, Mr Eustice is to say: "Our long-term economic plan builds a stronger, more competitive economy and secures a better future for Britain by helping spread growth and prosperity.
"For years, the rural economy and farms were ignored. Today, the Government is doing everything it can to support them. And that means more jobs, more opportunities and more financial security for hard-working people."
His speech on the first day of the conference comes as research suggests that Britain's farming sector has defied the recession by contributing an additional £8.6bn to the UK economy.
The report, entitled Backing the Business of British Farming, shows UK agriculture's contribution to the economy increased by 54% between 2007 and 2012.
It also claims that food and drink is now the UK's fourth largest export sector, having grown by 2.5% in the first half of 2013.
Speaking ahead of the event, NFU president Peter Kendall said: "This report proves that farming has been delivering for Britain's economy despite the challenges thrown at us over the past couple of years - heavy rain, drought, unseasonable snow and flooding."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article