Business

It’s some time in the future. The oceans, swelled by melting ice caps, are clogged with plastic. There’s global poverty, erratic weather systems, mountains of waste and barely enough food.

The Scottish food and drink industry is globally recognised and continuing to strengthen it will be key to reaching the shared vision that The Scotland Food & Drink Partnership outlined in its Ambition 2030 strategy.

In a time of political and economic uncertainty, it is essential that businesses that export – and those planning to do so – must balance plans for growth with plans for unexpected changes in the market.

From monitoring crops in South America to helping to preventing deforestation in Asia, space technology is a  major export success story for Scotland.

In most countries around the world if people are asked what they associate with Scotland, whisky is likely to be one of the most popular answers.

Three days, that’s all it takes. That’s the maximum time needed to get salmon from the cold waters of a pristine sea loch in the far north-west of Scotland to an upmarket restaurant in Beijing, Sydney or Cape Town.

Cyberattacks, and particularly stories about hackers, cybercriminals, malware infections, and other external threats, continue to be at the centre of the news agenda. Headlines about the loss of millions of data records as part of a security breach, and the potentially devastating consequences of a cyberattack are a common occurrence.

Scotland certainly punches above its weight when it comes to the export of ideas.

Scotland's economic stability is threatened by the UK Government's "Brexit obsession" Derek Mackay warned today, as new figures showed the Scottish economy grew for the ninth consecutive quarter.

The Scottish Government has rejected comments by Gordon Brown that it has "so far done too little" to bring wind farm manufacturing contracts to Scotland.

Exceed, an Aberdeen-headquartered well management specialist, has expanded its offering after swooping on an English firm.

A market town hotel in Dumfriesshire has been put up for sale.

Hutchinson Networks, the Edinburgh-based tech firm that last month went bust with the loss of almost 100 jobs, has been sold to an overseas buyer.

Alcohol sales in Scotland fell to the lowest level for almost quarter of a century last year, new research has found.

Clydesdale Bank owner CYBG has confirmed plans to overhaul its brand in the next two years as it warned of further potential job cuts following the £1.7 billion Virgin Money takeover.

Food and drink wholesaler JW Filshill is to relocate to a new distribution centre near Glasgow Airport, marking Scotland’s largest industrial pre-let deal in five years.

Home Bargains has invested approximately £800,000 in its new store in Milngavie, will officially open at 8.30am on Saturday, June 22.