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Report raises indusrv prominence by ouiining how the sector is the iargest UK empioyer with a 3.7ni-srong woridorce
report was written by food and drink skills council Improve in partnership with sector skills councils Lantra, People 1st, Skills for Logistics and SkillsmEirt Retail. Defra, the Food and Drink Federation, IGD and the NFU were also involved. The report outlines how, with 3.7m employees, the food supply chain is the UK's largest employer, accounting for 14 per cent of the workforce. Turnover has increased 18 per cent since 2007, now standing at 412bn, with exports groving by the same
proportion over the same period to 16.1bn, it said. The report also looks at the key drivers for change and places growth considerations in the context of Government policy on food security, sustainability, technological advances, consumer demand and globalisation. A key focus is on skills, looking at common areas across primary production, food and drink manufacturing and processing, food retail and hospitality areas where productivity and per-
formance could be improved through training. Jim Paice, minister for agriculture and food, welcomed the report as an important step towards a whole food supply chain approach. "I believe its potential is even greater. That is where work on skills is vital," he said. Sukky Jassi, head of research at Improve, said: "There is a lot of common ground in the skills issues across the FSC. So it is logical to work collectively towards shared solutions."
water deficit of more than 25mm could experience lower yields, with adverse
effects on tuber size distribution if they don't irrigate." Irrigating now will also help to minimise their cultivation expenses, he said, because crops need even more irrigation if their rooting is reduced. Recent studies showed that it takes 80 litres of diesel to pump 250cu m of water and bed tilling typically costs 98/ha, of which 40 per cent comprises diesel.
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