Food Pavilion at Balmoral to showcase Action Plan to transform key industry

The Northern Ireland Food Strategy Framework Action Plan 2025-2027 will be highlighted in the popular local food showcase that’s organised by Food NI during the four-day show, the most important event, especially for artisan and smaller food enterprises, in the hugely important industry’s calendar from 13-16 May.

More than 100 food and drink producers, both large and small, have been signed up by Food NI, led by chief executive Michele Shirlow, for the event which attracts over 100,000 visitors, offering the biggest opportunity to reach a wide audience of people from all over Northern Ireland with the ambitious plan. Food NI was supported by DAERA and the Regional Food Programme to help showcase the strategy at the recent IFEX event in Balmoral.

Published in November 2024 by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affair by DAERA Minister Andrew Muir, the Strategy was followed by the unveiling of the Action Plan, a two-year initiative designed to transform the local food system into a more sustainable, resilient, and healthy model. It contains 39 actions focusing on environmental sustainability, health, food poverty, and economic prosperity across the supply chain.

DAERA, developed the strategy and action plan in collaboration with other departments and other food industry bodies such as Food NI and the Food Standards Authority, as well as the universities and colleges and will be organising many other activities at Balmoral to increase community awareness of the plans.

Food NI has worked with DAERA, the Regional Food Programme and the universities on a series of awareness activities on promoting the strategy and plan.

The hospitality and culinary sectors have also been involved in the initiatives.

Both strategy and action plan emphasise that collaboration is vital.

The action plan focuses on:

- Vision: A transformed food system providing safe, nourishing, accessible food while protecting natural resources.

- Duration: 2025–2027, aligning with the Programme for Government and ministerial mandates.

The Key priorities are:

- Health and Food: Building connections between food, health, and wellbeing.

- Sustainability: Enhancing natural resources and supporting eco-friendly practices.

- Economy: Developing sustainable economic prosperity within the agri-food sector.

- Society: Reducing food poverty and improving food education.

Continuing collaboration to ensure the success of the plan is a central theme underpinning DAERA’s approach. Increasing awareness of the strategy and plan has been a focus of activities over the past year.

The action plan serves as “the initial phase of a longer-term strategy aimed at 2030 and beyond, aiming to address the need for a greener and more resilient food system,” according to DAERA.

Minister Andrew Muir has said: “It represents a new ‘whole of government’ approach around food, recognising the interconnection between food, health, the economy and the environment. It has been created in a collaborative process involving the Departments for Communities and for the Economy as well as the Departments of Education, Health, Justice and Finance and the Food Standards Agency and Invest NI.

“The two-year action plan is the start of our journey towards the delivery of our shared vision of ‘A transformed innovative food system that protects and enhances natural resources for future generations, is environmentally sustainable, economically ambitious and provides safe, nutritionally balanced, accessible food for all.”

The plan reflects “a growing international recognition of the importance of food systems and the challenges and opportunities of ensuring food security, health and nutrition for a growing population, supporting the livelihoods of farmers and others in the food supply chain, and doing so in an environmentally sustainable way.

“My Executive colleagues and I are committed to focusing our collective efforts to maximise these opportunities and laying the foundations for the generations to come.

“We are particularly mindful of the need to reduce inequalities within our society. We recognise the impact that food poverty can have on our health and wellbeing and we are passionate about working collectively with others to create a food system which strives to reduce food poverty, ensuring an adequate, nutritious diet is accessible to all.

“My Executive colleagues and I recognise that ‘turning the dial’ on many of the long-established societal challenges will take time and the direction of travel will be influenced by the emerging budgetary, policy/ legislation, and science developments, including behavioural science. By working together, we can reset our relationship with food and build a food system that puts healthy people, a healthy natural environment and a healthy economy at its core.”

The first two-year action plan, the Minister continues, “specifically focuses on the creation of purposeful partnerships across government departments, local councils, academia, industry, business and community and voluntary stakeholders and building on the good work already underway. Everyone has a role in this journey”.

Welcoming the sharp focus on partnership, Michele Shirlow adds: “Food NI has been delighted to have been involved closely with a number of important collaborations with DAERA and the Regional Food Programme on initiatives to raise awareness of the strategy and action plan with key sectors of the industry here. We will continued to support both especially in the Food Pavilion at Balmoral and in the years ahead.”