Food and drink Sector Council - New Chair

This week Tim Smith was appointed as Chair to the Food and drink sector council, replacing former co-Chairs Ian Wright and Terry Jones.

The Food and Drink Council is a body which sits with government and has appointed to it as a co-chair the Food Minister Victoria Prentis, it creates a formal industry partnership with the Government which works to address challenges faced by the sector and build a more productive and sustainable food and drink system. It also looks to delivering some of the measures in the Food Strategy for Industry and the Government

Food Minister Victoria Prentis said:

Tim brings an unrivalled experience of the food and drink sector from his time across a number of different organisations and a fantastic enthusiasm to drive forward the council’s agenda of meeting the challenges currently faced by the industry at large.

Tim Smith said:

"The food and drink sector is facing challenges which are unprecedented in my time. It is imperative that industry and the Government continue to work in partnership to ensure we have a food system fit for the future.

The Food and Drink Sector Council must help provide the strategic oversight to create that system and I’m delighted to take on the role of industry co-chair. I look forward to working with the Ministerial co-chair to identify the key issues facing the sector and to find practical actions to address them."

Without doubt, there is considerable work to be done by the Council at this time to address the current challenges impacting hospitality, but this also illustrates how the portfolio for addressing matters hospitality related is spread across a number of bodies, a point we considered in our recent legal opinion in Propel.