Leader: Why our traditional strengths can secure Scotland's future

WHEN times turn tough, it's our traditional strengths that help to see us through. That is the story behind figures showing that Scotland's overseas food sales passed the £1 billion mark for the first time last year. And export sales of whisky climbed a further 10 per cent to £3.4bn.

In years of economic growth, when business services and hi-tech products and services set the pace and grab the spotlight, the traditional food and drink sector is lost from view and its progress taken for granted. But this changes when the economy overall is struggling to mark time, let alone achieve double-figure percentage growth. Food and drink make up a classic defensive sector: spending on food is often the last area to be cut back, while alcohol sales tend to rise as comfort and consolation is sought.

The 4.5bn record total for Scotland's food and drink exports is thus particularly welcome. It may be argued that the sector is a passive beneficiary of the fall in sterling and thus lifted by factors other than its own efforts. But a glance at recent trade figures shows that a weaker pound alone by no means guarantees success. In May the UK trade deficit in goods and services widened to 8.5bn from an upwardly revised 7.6bn deficit the previous month. This was notably larger than market expectations and adds to the doubts over official growth forecasts - and the government's deficit reduction targets, dependent as they are on an export-led recovery.

As oil imports fell, the trade deficit excluding oil and erratics increased even more than the headline figure, to 8.4bn from 6.9bn previously. So a weak pound alone does not deliver salvation.

Scotland's export success in food and drink is testimony, not only to the enduring qualities of this sector when others turn down, but also to the continuing efforts to build and sustain overseas markets and trade. This is a world in which nothing can be taken for granted and where product quality, together with sales and marketing coverage and penetration, have continually to be worked on.

Nearly two-thirds of food sales came from fish and shellfish, up by 12 per cent over the year. Fresh salmon exports were up by 20 per cent . The fastest growth in food export markets was recorded in Poland and the United Arab Emirates, while Germany was up 29 per cent and the United States up by a quarter.

Meanwhile, whisky continues to dominate the food and drinks export trade. Export sales by value were up 10 per cent at 3.45bn, with the giant US market growing by 19 per cent to almost 500 million. Developing country markets powered ahead with big gains in India and Russia. Anne MacColl, chief executive of Scottish Development International, can take pride in these figures, testimony as they are to skills in marketing and innovation every bit as important to traditional industries as they are in the new.