As Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly begin to open back up following lockdown, Brent Treloar, Business Development Manager for the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Investment Fund, takes a look at the 5 pillars of Cornish economy, which will play a key role in kickstarting economic recovery in the region.

There is likely to be some unnerving and depressing economic data to come in the next few months; productivity, public sector debt, low growth, business closures, unemployment, redundancies, business failures, etc. However, we take encouragement from the 5 strong pillars of the Cornish economy:

  1. Our strong agricultural and diverse farming sector, with temperate climate and rich soil to grow local food.
  2. A fishing sector rich in history with a hard-working workforce and plentiful territorial waters.
  3. The tourism sector, perhaps about to benefit from a rise in staycation holidays, reaping the harvest of past investment into a great product that represents world-class accommodation, leisure, customer service and hospitality.
  4. Advanced manufacturing borne out of our rich mining heritage and poised to exploit trends in renewables, aerospace, electric motors & digital fabrication.
  5. Finally, a spirit of innovation and enterprise, almost unknown for a small county of just 540,000 population, building on the heritage bequeathed by Trevithick, Murdock, Davy, Bickford and many others.

That is the real foundations of Cornwall’s resilience to weather any coming storm!