2. What is the Welsh Government doing to address the fruit and vegetable deficit in Wales? OAQ(5)0150(ERA) 

Thank you. The Welsh Government supports the agriculture and food industries in partnership with Amaeth Cymru and the Food and Drink Wales Industry Board. There is potential to develop horticulture and opportunity as Wales adapts to Brexit. We recognise the health benefits of fruit and vegetable consumption and have taken action to promote them.

Thank you for that, Cabinet Secretary, and welcome back, incidentally. This is my first opportunity to say that to you.

We only produce about 10 per cent of what we consume, so the deficit is up to 90 per cent, certainly of fruit and veg that can be grown in our climate. With 2 per cent of Welsh agricultural land given over to fruit and veg, albeit 10.5 per cent of grade 1 to 3 land, we would actually produce all that we need. So, I do hope that, in any shaping of future policy post Brexit, that we see the importance of this area. We did use to produce more; we should produce more again.

Yes, I think you raise a very important point and, when we look at Brexit, it’s not all doom and gloom—there are opportunities. I think one of the opportunities is that we could perhaps look at the potential different uses of land, if you like, and we’ve started scoping that work. Obviously, it’s up to a landowner what they want to do with their land, but I think there is the opportunity to do that. As I say, we’re scoping it now because we’ll need that information to see what we can do.

Obviously, the climate does have an impact and also consumers’ choice and consumers demand vegetables out of season, if you like. So, I think all these decisions and information have to be looked at, but I think certainly, post Brexit, there is that opportunity to do that.

I hope we’re not going to wait until Brexit before doing something about this because there are lots of things that the Government could be doing now. One is that we could be planting more fruit trees because we need to plant more trees generally and, if we have fruit trees, then their produce is available. But, more strategically, I wondered if we could have a much more urgent approach to our public procurement policy around food, in particular to enable us to follow the lead of Flintshire, which is adopting the ‘Food for Life’ certification, which requires schools to produce 75 per cent of their dishes freshly produced. That would obviously stimulate the horticulture industry to provide the vegetables and fruit that schools would need. The same would apply to hospitals and other public buildings. We have this approach here in our canteen in the Senedd. Surely, we can extend it to all our children.

Yes, we certainly don’t have to wait until post Brexit—that was where I was specifically talking about the work that we were doing in looking at the use of land in a different way. Certainly, we have been looking at the current procurement regime to make sure that we do that.

I have the Food and Drink Wales Industry Board and, obviously the food and drink industry action plan, and I think that absolutely recognises the importance of healthy eating, particularly in our schools and in other parts of our public sector. We’ve also got the Peas Please initiative, which was started by the Food Foundation, and that’s bringing together farmers and retailers and fast-food outlets, and caterers and processors and Governments, and that really is looking at the supply chain and how we can raise fruit and vegetable production.