In 2017, there are 289,000 food and drink companies in Europe; 9 in 10 are Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). They are present in every region and stand for both tradition and innovation in our industry. These companies produce a vast range of food and drink products, satisfying the diverse and constantly changing needs of Europe’s 500 million consumers and a multitude of other customers worldwide.
Food and drink SMEs employ local workforces – 2.8 million workers in total, which would be enough jobs to employ the entire population of Lithuania. They source their raw materials mostly from Europe. This makes them essential actors in our economy and a key component of Europe’s food and drink sector, which is the EU’s largest manufacturing industry and globally ranks as the largest exporter of food and drink products.
These companies may be small in scale, but they are big in impact. With this in mind, FoodDrinkEurope wishes to use this White Paper to make a few concrete policy suggestions to help these SMEs keep their essential role and remain the anchor of our economy and traditions.
Each of them has a story to tell…
