The UK Food Valley is home to world-leading food industry clusters concentrated around fresh produce in the south, food processing across the area, and seafood in the north.

These strategic national assets each have established and anchored ecosystems which mean that businesses can access expertise, skilled workers and supply chain infrastructure to reduce investment costs, risks and timeframes to support growth and innovation. 

Acting together as powerful clusters, they represent a premium, high-concentration of food and farming activity producing 12% of England's food and supporting 75,000+ jobs, and with total sales of over £15bn per year..  

Key strengths include unrivalled production of fresh vegetables (30% of England's total) and 19% of poultry, a leading seafood processing sector (70% of the UK’s processing), and large-scale food manufacturing businesses.  The clusters drive the adoption of innovation including AI-driven automation, robotics, and sustainable, low-carbon food chain technologies.  The agrifood industry, academia and public sector are collaborating under the UK Food Valley to pioneer sustainability through innovation and bring long term food security to UK plc. 

The cluster supports around 75,000 food sector jobs, representing 14% of jobs in the area compared to under 4% of the UK workforce. At the heart of our leading food clusters this concentration is much higher, for example in the south which focuses on fresh produce and logistics, this rises to 42% of the local workforce. 

Core clusters 

  • South Lincolnshire Food Processing Cluster 
  • Fresh Produce and Glasshouse Cluster 
  • Seafood Processing Cluster 
  • Core Cluster Strengths & Specialisms 

Sector Leadership: Representing the UK's centre for seafood processing with both the UK Seafood Federation and Seafish headquartered in Grimsby, fresh produce and salads with the British Growers Association in Louth, and poultry. 

Unrivalled Agri-Tech Innovation: The cluster houses the University of Lincoln's Institute for Agrifood Technology (LIAT); and the National Centre for Food Manufacturing (NCFM) with centres in Holbeach and Grimsby; Barclays Eagle Lab co-located with LIAT.  Together these centres focus on robotics, AI, and automation to enhance productivity, as well as sustainable farming and cutting edge food processing. 

Logistics & Distribution: It holds the UK's greatest concentration of food logistics, with 30% of national food shipments passing through South Lincolnshire.  The British Frozen Foods Federation (BFFF) are based in Lincolnshire. 

Sustainable Production: Focusing on resilient, sustainable practices and farm-to-fork solutions. 

Scale and Scope: The cluster supports 14% of the area's jobs compared to under 4% nationally, specialising in high-value, ready-to-eat products and the whole food chain from fertilisers from waste to sustainable packaging.