New brand on table for Midlothian

A NEW food and drink brand has been launched to help promote produce from Midlothian.

The initiative is being run by the local authority, Visit Scotland and the Midlothian Tourism Forum, and will see joint promotion of the food and drink sector, along with midlothianfood-drink.com.

It is hoped the tourism sector will also benefit from the push.

Manuela Calchini, Regional director for VisitScotland, said: “We are delighted to help launch Midlothian’s Food and Drink brand – and also to sign the Minute of Agreement with Midlothian Council, which sets out the key areas for delivery in tourism for the area.

“Midlothian has so much to offer the visitor in terms of its tourism product and we know that food and drink plays a significant part in the visitor experience – with figures showing that £1 in every £5 spent by a visitor in Scotland is on food and drink-related activity, equating to more than £500 million for UK visitors alone.”

Midlothian Provost, Councillor Adam Montgomery, added: “We aim to encourage entrepreneurship and to help turn creative ideas into new tourism sector products.”