Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy, Kate Forbes, has revealed that an additional £10m is to be made available to support the food and drink wholesale sector as it recovers from the pandemic.
This is on top of the £5m dedicated funding for wholesale announced by the Scottish Government in December as part of the £8m supply chain funding from its £100m Omicron business support package.
It is expected that a new round of the Scottish Food and Drink Wholesale Resilience Fund will go live on Friday (28 January).
Colin Smith, SWA chief executive, said: “Wholesalers haven’t received the same benefits as many other businesses such as rates relief or strategic framework grants over the pasts year. The SWA highlighted this anomaly and the real hardship faced by many wholesalers to the Scottish Government. So this latest, dedicated funding recognises the key role that wholesalers play in the food and drink supply chain, including the supply into schools and hospitals.”
He added: “Our members are slowly recovering from the latest variant but there is still a long way to go. We thank ministers and officials for working with us to tailor a fund to the needs of our sector and look forward to continued engagement with them to ensure Scotland’s wholesale sector recovers and keeps the wheels to the food and drink industry moving.”
