Salmond dishes out cash boost for Highland cuisine

FIRST Minister Alex Salmond yesterday served up another £25,000 towards a series of events in the Highlands to celebrate Scotland's cuisine.

A year-long celebration, which runs until next May, is showcasing the country's food and drink and encouraging greater use of local and seasonal produce.

Scotland's Year of Food and Drink aims to build on Homecoming 2009, which generated an extra 53.7 million in tourism revenue for Scotland's economy.

Mr Salmond announced the additional funds during a reception in Dornoch last night.

The Scottish cabinet is due to meet in Dornoch today, fulfilling a promise made by Mr Salmond last year when he opened the Burghfield House hotel, which trains students for the hospitality industry.

He said: "The food and drink sector is key to our economic recovery. Visitors to Scotland spend one pound in every five on food and drink-related activity, and we produce some of the finest produce in the world.

"we have a busy programme to keep up momentum and help the industry-led Scotland Food & Drink meet its target of growing the value of the sector to #12.5 billion by 2017."