Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 1:44 pm on 8 March 2017.
I’d encourage, obviously, the Cabinet Secretary to put it on the agenda, given that it was one of the recommendations in this particular review. The independent review was also quite right in recognising that there are significant cash flow problems for some farmers within the dairy sector, although I’m sure that that’s also an issue for dairy farmers across the UK. Indeed, this matter is not helped by the fact that there are high input costs for dairy farmers and there’s very little support from the Welsh Government to secure funding for capital improvements. Will you, therefore, commit to evaluating the costs attached to dairy farming in Wales, and look at ways in which the Welsh Government can provide support to dairy farmers through additional capital investment support to help to improve the efficiency and therefore the viability of the sector for the future?