Greater Lincolnshire sits at the heart of the UK’s £153bn agri-food sector*, offering unique investment opportunities for businesses seeking to gain from the industry’s transformation and growth in an established and world leading food cluster ecosystem.

Greater Lincolnshire is attracting a large number of investors to the agrifood sector and continues to secure multiple major investments into the agrifood industry every year.  Total investment, including upgrades to machinery and equipment, new production capacity and acquisitions is now running at c.£1bn per annum. 

The UK Food Valley is empowering companies to invest in industry-leading clusters right across the food value chain, and to access the expertise and technologies required to transform business performance, productivity and sustainability.

Significant agrifood industry clusters are situated throughout Greater Lincolnshire, with high levels of specialisation in every local area.

These established strengths mean that businesses can access the expertise, skilled workforce, supply chains and supporting infrastructure required to reduce investment project costs, risks, and timeframes, and to support ongoing growth and innovation.

UK Consumers: 69.5million (2025)                  

UK Market Value: £273billion in 2024                

UK Nominal Market Growth: +60% 2010-2024

Why Invest with Us

Investors are attracted by the scale of Greater Lincolnshire’s agrifood cluster and its position at the heart of the UK food chain, as well as Lincolnshire natural locational and production advantages and the depth and breadth of its agrifood skills base. 

Investors in areas of the South Bank of the Humber can enjoy the advantages of the Freeport, which provides financial incentives and easier planning.

Innovation funding is a strong theme with the University of Lincoln’s Lincoln Institute for AgriFood Technology (LIAT) at Riseholme, being the largest recipient of Innovate UK funding in the agrifood sector in the last decade.  All of the projects LIAT supports are linked with industry and it has raised over £120m since 2026 for applied R&D with industry partners.

LIAT is co-located with the Barclays Eagle Farm Lab, which has worked with a network of over 160 agritech businesses across the UK, who have so far raised over £140m of growth funding.

Together with LIAT, the Eagle Lab, is supporting a rapidly growing cluster of high growth agritech businesses by bringing together investors with early stage businesses.  This has already led to a cluster of agritech spinouts and start ups with more joining the cluster.  LIAT is launching the AgriTech Commercialisation Ecosytem (ACE) fund in 2026 to help early stage agritech businesses secure investment funding.

The UK Food Valley team work closely with businesses and the University and Eagle Lab teams to secure new funding for commercial projects and technology led businesses, so get in touch if you have project ideas you would like to explore.

The UK Agrifood Market Opportunity

The UK’s agrifood sector presents an unrivalled range of opportunities for business investment, growth and reshoring, including:

  • 69.5 million UK consumers spending £273 billion annually on food and drink in retail and food service
  • Renewed focus on food security post-Covid-19, recent conflicts and supply chain challenges including extreme weather events
  • The need to develop sustainable, resilient low carbon food chains
  • Productivity goals and workforce constraints which is driving demand for new technologies
  • Growing UK demand for added-value premium healthy, and naturally good-for-you foods

UK Food Valley investment opportunity

  • Support for your Agrifood Sector Business Investment - Cohesive and streamless collaboration with Invest Lincolnshire and partner organisations, including local authorities, education providers and businesses, to provide dedicated support to ensure a ‘soft landing’ for companies locating and investing in Lincolnshire.
  • Established Agrifood Clusters - Major industry clusters including agriculture, food and seafood manufacturing, advanced agricultural and food technologies, and food logistics
  • Market Opportunity - Producing 12% of England’s food and enabling direct access to the UK’s growing and transforming agrifood market
  • Research & Innovation  - Leadership in technologies addressing key agrifood industry challenges: improving productivity, sustainability and supply chain resilience
  • Specialist Workforce - A large, specialised, skilled, regional agrifood workforce
  • Sites & Properties -Available, cost-effective sites and properties including Food Enterprise Zones
  • Multimodal Connectivity - Fast, multimodal access to UK & global food and drink markets and exceptional logistics, cold store and port gateways
  • Dedicated Support - Dedicated support for investing agrifood businesses

Visit Invest Lincolnshire for more information and  view our investment proposition brochures in the documents section below.

*2023

Useful Links