BROMSGROVE, England, November 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

In an interview with just-food.com, Owen Paterson, Secretary of State for the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs calls on the country's food manufacturers to expand overseas.

Paterson says the potential of the UK food industry is "absolutely enormous" and, in order to tap into opportunities for growth, the sector must look to expand in international markets.

The UK food and farming sector is the country's largest manufacturing industry, employing 3.5m people and generating a turnover of around £90bn a year. The industry already exports products to the value of GBP18bn annually but Paterson believes the sector can do more - and claims it can be a "huge" driver of the UK's economic recovery.

Earlier this month, the Secretary of State led a delegation of 50 UK food companies to China to build the sector's presence in a market he believes has untapped potential for British manufacturers.

However, Paterson refutes the suggestion the UK government must do more to support exporters as they compete with food manufacturers from rival countries for a slice of the growth in markets like China.

With the UK economy in the doldrums, international markets represent a vital avenue for growth for exporters - and just-food's interview with Paterson is a must-read for companies looking to build an international business.

Paterson is the latest in a series of high-profile stakeholders just-food has interviewed this year. Unilever CEO Paul Polman, Ian McLeod, the MD of Australian retail giant Coles and Rakesh Biyani, boss of Indian retailer Future Group are just three of the leading lights just-food has featured in 2012.

The full list of just-food's high-profile interviews can be found here.

Subscribers to just-food have full access to each interview. Subscribing is easy and can be done in just a few clicks by signing up here.

Aboutjust-food.com

Established in 1999, just-food.com is a leading online resource for the global food industry publishing around 20 news articles, analysis features and insights every working day. Under the direction of just-food managing editor Dean Best, its experienced team of journalists, consultants and analysts provides a unique blend of reports and interpretation of the sector, including key events, trends, interviews and research that is delivered to over 96,000 business executives per month.

Via its website, webinars and in-depth management briefings just-food offers insight into industry developments. Its CONSULT research platform offers flexible, custom research delivered by their team of experienced analysts.

For details of how just-food is "helping decision makers make decisions" visit http://www.just-food.com.

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SOURCE just-food.com