The Agriculture Industry

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:09 pm on 13 February 2018.

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Photo of Carwyn Jones Carwyn Jones Labour 2:09, 13 February 2018

Cheap food is code for undermining British farming. That's what it means, because if you're not prepared to support the farming industry, not even with tariffs, then you end up with the cheapest imports coming in and wiping out our farming industry. That's what will happen. It's simple economics and something that has not been properly explained by those who say, 'We'll just have cheap food and buy it all around the world, no matter where it comes from, and who cares about our own farmers', especially those farmers who will lose the privileged access they have to the European market. Our sheep farmers cannot survive if they find themselves in a position where there are extra barriers in place in terms of them accessing the European market. It is their biggest market; 90 per cent of our food and drink exports go there. We'd be literally mad if we ignored the fact that we need to sort out access to that European single market first before following fantasies elsewhere.