Welsh Food Centers Collaborate to Help Government’s Plan of a GBP 7 billion Food Industry by 2020

Leading business centers from the Welsh food industry are coming together to put their government’s Food and Drink Action Plan firmly on track. The three centers – The Food Technology Centre, Food Centre Wales, and Zero2Five Food Industry Centre – have joined hands to launch a new body called Food Innovation Wales (FIW). The new body will use its expertise to facilitate knowledge transfer and contribute toward the creation of new products that can add to Wales’ food industry bottom lines.
The collaboration between the three centers has been initiated with the aim of supporting the new Food and Drink Action Plan that was launched by the Welsh government. The target of the plan is to help the Welsh food sector achieve a growth of 30% to touch GBP 7 billion by 2020. 

Currently, Zero2Five and the Food Technology Centre are already engaged in a knowledge transfer initiative which has helped participating companies add a whopping GBP 80 million to their turnover since 2009. The Zero2Five Food Industry Centre is located at the Cardiff Metropolitan University. 

According to the director of Zero2Five Food Industry Centre, Food Innovation Wales will help increase the focus of the Welsh food industry on critical areas, and at the same time ensure delivery across Wales. 

The strategic targets of this program will are Welsh partners as well as International players so as to ensure knowledge and technical know-how exchange at the global level. Knowledge exchange will be encouraged across areas such as hygiene practices, technical systems, and food law, said a senior official associated with the program. 

The deputy minister of the Welsh government’s food and farming ministry, Rebecca Evans, said that the Food Innovation Wales initiative will help incubate innovation in the food industry and improve Wales’ standing as a nation that serves companies in the food and drink industry.