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Taste North benefits from funding to help food and drink sector recover from Covid impact





Local food, drink and artisan craft festival Taste North is one of several Scottish projects to be awarded a share of £200,000 to help recover from the impact of Covid-19.

The money will help in the creation of a "virtual/physical hybrid edition" of the well-established Highland food and drink festival and will allow increased trader participation and promotion of local produce.

The annual festival was set up by Venture North – a group focusing on promoting the tourism potential of Caithness and Sutherland – and celebrates all the food and drink products created in the far north.

French chef Jean-Christophe Novelli at Taste North 2019, doing a cookery demonstration with David Bullivant of Cairn Hill Agriculture. Picture: Alan Hendry
French chef Jean-Christophe Novelli at Taste North 2019, doing a cookery demonstration with David Bullivant of Cairn Hill Agriculture. Picture: Alan Hendry

The Regional Food Fund (RFF), one of the Scottish Government’s 100 Days commitments, will help producers and event organisers showcase quality regional food and drink products. The fund is designed to contribute to the sector’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and assist the development of food tourism-related projects.

A total of 42 grants of up to £5,000 have been made to stimulate creative, innovative and collaborative projects.

Other ventures include a regional food group of more than 30 businesses in Argyll and Bute where funding will support the growth of off-island sales, while in Fife, the Bowhouse market will expand to help more local food and drink producers gain access to an alternative route to market.

The grants were announced by Scotland's rural affairs secretary Mairi Gougeon during a visit to the Shetland Rural Centre in Lerwick.

She said: “This funding underlines our continued commitment to this important and exciting sector and I am delighted to see the involvement of such a diverse range of projects.

“A combination of Covid-19 and Brexit have dealt a significant blow to many of our high-quality food and drink producers and recognising this, we doubled the initial funding to £200,000 to help more projects."


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