Current status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 13 January 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it will take to ensure that outcome 6B of the Good Food Nation Plan, which aims for Scotland’s food sector to make a positive contribution to global food system transformation, is effectively measured, and what consideration will be given to using indicators, such as Fairtrade product purchasing or Fair Trade procurement through Scotland Excel, to provide independent data on Scotland’s global food impact.
The first national Good Food Nation Plan and accompanying initial monitoring framework set out how we will measure progress towards our six overarching outcomes. Scotland’s food sector already makes many positive contributions to global food system transformation. For example, the Scottish Government continues to support research and innovation in low-carbon food solutions to enhance the resilience of our future food system to climate change and contribute positively to global food transformation.
However, a suitable indicator to assess and monitor sub-outcome 6B has not yet been identified. As set out in Scottish Fair Trade’s recent reports on Fair Trade procurement within the Scottish public sector, fair trade procurement data was ‘not fully accurate nor reliable due to variations in how fair trade spend is defined and monitored’. As set out in the monitoring framework, we intend to review the Scottish food data landscape on an on-going basis and will reflect any new or improved datasets in future iterations of the Plan.