Dairy UK Strategy Aims to Improve British Dairy Exports

UK - Dairy UK has published a new export strategy to help the country's dairy industry unlock a 'new world of opportunity' on international markets.
calendar icon 5 February 2016
clock icon 3 minute read

The strategy, entitled 'United Kingdom: Exporting Dairy to the World', identifies a raft of actions and recommendations that will enhance the UK dairy industry's export performance.

Launching the report today Dr David Dobbin, Chairman of Dairy UK, said: "We have an outstanding British industry producing world-class products and the people in our industry have the ambition and the determination to succeed. To achieve enduring success, we must seize all the opportunities that lie ahead."

The export strategy sets out a variety of actions and recommendations including ensuring a skilled workforce, improving the export certification regime, and removing barriers to dairy trade.

Farming Minister George Eustice said: "UK food has an excellent reputation the world over and with a growing global demand for dairy, British producers should take the opportunity to promote their high quality produce at home and abroad.

"Exports are a crucial part of growing and strengthening the dairy industry and a key part of our plan is to see new markets opened, so that the sector can become more resilient, competitive and profitable."

Dr Judith Bryans, Chief Executive of Dairy UK, added: "Other dairy exporting countries have followed successful paths and set interesting examples in terms of industry-government cooperation to foster growth and develop exports.

"We can learn from these experiences and ensure that the UK has efficient and cost-effective systems that support export growth while preserving consumer confidence in the safety and quality of UK dairy products.

"We have already increased our share of global trade in recent years but there is scope to do much more. To meet our goals, we need to take stock of and showcase how well the UK dairy industry is doing in terms of innovation and promotion, skilling our industry for the future, food safety and environmental credentials. Getting all of these elements right is essential in a highly competitive export market."

The National Farmers Union (NFU) chief dairy adviser Sian Davies welcomed the move, saying: “Over the past 12 months, the dairy sector has been under severe financial pressure from unprecedented low prices, so looking to add value through selling more UK produce abroad and to growing markets has never been so important. That’s why the NFU is fully supportive of DairyUK’s strategy to unlock new opportunities for high quality British dairy products.

"However, the whole supply chain will need to work together to achieve this through all necessary routes; producing for market demand, improved skills and training and more processing capacity.

“After Ireland our main export destinations for dairy products are the Netherlands, France, Belgium and Germany. We know that Defra wants to focus on new markets outside the EU and this strategy should help to focus minds on removing trade barriers and opening new opportunities for our excellent products.”

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