The FDEA’s Annual Netwrok Forum focused heavily on Brexit in the current climate, with a number of key speakers in attendance. 

The Minister of State for Trade and Export Promotion at the Department for International Trade (DIT), Rt Hon Baroness Rona Fairhead began with a keynote address. She discussed government plans to encourage UK businesses to export, commenting on how only 10 per cent of UK businesses currently export, in comparison to around 20-30 per cent in Germany. 

She discussed how businesses can obtain help from the government in the way of events and liasing with external entities and embassies. Baroness Fairhead also discussed how the government has put aside £50 billion to finance certain ventures, with businesses able to access this money through the big five banks.  

She closed her speech commenting on how businesses should ‘realise the importance of the sector, reach out and mention how the government can help.’

John Arnold at Northern Universal spoke about politics and Brexit, hypothesising different scenarios and their outcomes on the food and drinks industry and how it could affect exports. 

He then participated in a panel presentation on Brexit Essentials wher panel members spoke of the impact of Brexit on food exports and on the food and drink industry. He predicted that a ‘no-deal’ Brexit will not occur, but that large fluctuations in the pound will, presenting its own difficulties to the food and drink industry. 

He concluded by mentioning that there is ‘definitely a case for ‘bells and braces’’ with the industry looking forward to a period of volatility. 

 Neil Hendry went on to discuss Britain in a global stage, and the brand of ‘Britain’ abroad. The four important markets for the food and drinks industry were discussed and how those markets view British goods. 

He went on to discuss how the US market looks for heritage, premium, ethical and food with quality, with differences seen in Indian markets, Chinese and Japanese markets. Innovation in products seemed to be missing from the lists, with the speaker mentioning how businesses need to have a distinct product to get to more premium markets I order to get through the looming current economic storm. 

The message of the event was to promote businesses exporting, and building relationships between countries in order to do this. The industry needs to stand by high standards, quality and tracibilty to be able to enter emerging markets around the world. 

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