Arla in Llandyrnog

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:30 pm on 12 June 2018.

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Photo of Llyr Gruffydd Llyr Gruffydd Plaid Cymru 1:30, 12 June 2018

(Translated)

Thank you for that response. I know it's early days, but I would like to ask whether the Government would be willing to consider maximising the potential of that site by looking at attracting others to operate from that particular site in future. Because the concern is that, if the site is mothballed, it closes everyone else out in terms of the opportunity to process milk in that area. We don't want a situation such as the one we saw in Whitland in west Wales many years ago, where the site was vacant for many years, which meant in turn that it wasn't possible to process milk in that area. That's important, of course, not only because we need processing capacity in Wales for all the reasons that I've outlined previously in my question to the Cabinet Secretary for the Economy and Transport last week, but also, of course, there is a commitment by Arla to continue to take milk from farmers in the north east. But for how long will they be willing to transfer that to Scotland and to Devon without, ultimately, deciding that it's not cost-effective?