A total of 33 food and drink business are set to benefit from a share of more than £10 million in government grants to improve supply-chain efficiency, increase production and run feasibility studies.
The support ranges from £16,000 to £1.4 million from the Food Processing, Marketing and Cooperation (FPMC) grant scheme.
Projects include capacity building for a dairy farm to meet the growing demand for its soft cheese, a new venison processing operation, and installing solar panels at a butcher premises to reduce carbon footprint and minimise electricity costs.
“We are absolutely delighted that our FPMC Grant application was successful. The FPMC grant gives our small farming business a huge opportunity to diversify and move forward,” Phil Swire of P HM & PP Swire, Balmakewan Farm Shop, said.
“It will allow us to process our Organically home-grown produce on-site, creating further local employment.”
FPMC provides grant funding to businesses (or groups of businesses) within the Scottish food and drink sector to enable them to:
- develop or create food processing facilities, including buildings and equipment
- market products in home and export markets,
- run pilot projects and feasibility studies
- to run co-operative ventures to ensure more value is retained by both farmers and growers and to improve supply-chain efficiency.
“The FPMC scheme has enabled some really exciting projects in the past and I’m confident that this round of funding will play an important role in helping producers continue to deliver high-quality, innovative and nutritious products – securing and creating jobs and boosting the economy,” Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon said.
