MALTON has been named as a food enterprise zone (FEZ) – one of only six in the country.

Environment secretary Elizabeth Truss has designated the “food capital of Yorkshire” a zone, making it easier for food firms to expand and new ones to be set up.

A £50,000 grant from Defra – the maximum it can allocate – will go towards creating the FEZ at Malton Food Park, just outside Malton.

An agri-food park is expected to create employment for more than 500 people and plans also include relocating Malton’s livestock market to a purpose-built facility alongside it.

The livestock market will be situated alongside local food and farming-based businesses. There will also be additional space for businesses to develop new ideas at the nearby National Agri-Food Innovation Campus.

The zones will streamline planning procedures for businesses that meet the criteria, in order to aid expansion help them expand, and will also enable closer links between farmers, manufacturers, retailers and researchers.

Plans for Yorkshire’s first FEZ were submitted by Ryedale District Council and the York, North Yorkshire and East Riding Enterprise Partnership, which has also invested in the site.

The park was recently awarded £2.1m in local growth funding for highways work to open up the site for development.

Barry Dodd, chairman of the enterprise partnership board, said: “One of our key priorities is to support our area to become a global leader in food, agri-tech and biorenewables.

"The Malton food enterprise zone will have close links to our world-leading work at the Food and Environment Research Agency in Sand Hutton and York’s Biorenewables Centre, which all work towards achieving that goal.”