FARMERS and food producers in the Vale of Evesham are being given a share of an £830,000 pot of government funding to help create new jobs and attract investment to the area.

The Vale Business Park in the south edge of Evesham has been named as one of 17 Food Enterprise Zones across the UK by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Expansion work at the park on the south edge of the town is expected to begin early next year and it is hoped the project will particularly benefit the area’s world-renowned asparagus farmers.

The scheme is being developed by Wychavon District Council in partnership with the Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership along with Pershore College.

Executive director of the partnership Gary Woodman welcomed the new arrangement.

“This further supports our excellent agri-tech businesses to grow, increasing their profitability through improved supply chain and exporting opportunities whilst creating more jobs and increasing the already excellent educational training available at Pershore College,” he said.

The national Food Enterprise Zones project is expected to create more than 10,000 new jobs in the food and farming industry and involves 17 different projects across the UK.

Speaking at the first meeting of the project Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss said: “Our food and farming industry is an economic powerhouse, now worth over £100 billion a year and employing one in eight people.”

She added she hoped the project would encourage investment in the industry while increasing its profile across the country.

“Food Enterprise Zones – such as the one in the Vale of Evesham - will unleash food entrepreneurs, bringing together researchers, farmers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers so they can improve productivity and spark new ideas off each other all the way along the supply chain from farm to fork, from lab to lunch,” she said.

Food and farming is the biggest manufacturing sector in the UK, worth more than cars and aerospace combined. In 2013 alone 30,000 new food and drink businesses were set up, creating thousands of new jobs.

Exports of food and drink bring almost £19 billion to the country’s economy every year.