Authors: Rachel Creaney, Sharon Flanigan and Kirsty Blackstock (The James Hutton Institute)
In May 2022, the MOVING regional Multi-Actor Platform coordinators of the mountain reference region of the Highlands and Islands (Scotland) travelled to their beautiful case study region in Speyside to hold their first in-person workshop.
The regional MAP coordinators, from the James Hutton Institute, supplemented the in-person workshop with a more condensed online workshop two weeks later to capture as wide a range of views as possible. The workshops aimed to clarify and deepen thinking following previous phases of desk-based research and stakeholder interviews around understanding the full extent of the selected value chain on Speyside Malt Whisky (from production to consumption), along with connected supporting organisations, activities and even where and how other value chains were involved within the core chain.
The workshops involved 15 representatives of different aspects and stages of the Speyside Malt Whisky value chain, including primary production, malting, distilleries, regional, environmental, research, youth, tourism, and consumer perspectives. At the workshops, they presented their findings to data along with leaving plenty of room for discussion, predominantly built around four working diagrams of our value chain that they had created based on our initial research. Find the snapshot of the focal value chain diagram presented at workshops here.
It was great to finally get out into ‘the field’ and explore the area which they have been studying from afar for the last 18 months. They used the information gathered from the two workshops to revise their diagrams and reports (which can now be viewed here). This information will also feed into subsequent upcoming MOVING research on resilience and sustainability.
Learn more about the Scotch Malt Whisky value chain by checking out this infographic.