Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:46 pm on 18 September 2018.
I was pleased to hear Steffan Lewis, in his remarks, mention food security as one of the major issues that we need to consider in the possibility of a 'no deal' with the European Union situation because I, like you, would hope that Mrs May can come up with a deal that we can all sign up to, but the Parliamentary arithmetic in Westminster makes it very difficult to see how that's going to happen.
So, just going back to food security, I've had a quick look at the technical notices that the UK Government has issued about the implications for fruit and vegetables that we currently import, in the vast majority, from the European Union. I can find quite a lot about how I could import a ferret, but not very much on fruit and veg. I can import 2 kg of fruit and veg from outside the EU. Now, presumably, that would apply to all countries that are in the EU if we have a hard crash out of Brexit. There's nothing about what I really want to understand, which is the implication for the wholesalers, the retailers who currently supply the high street to enable us all to have the food we need on a daily basis, particularly the perishables. So, Cabinet Secretary, you may have had longer to look at these technical notices, and I wondered if you can tell us what they say about this matter and what we can do to mitigate some of the worst effects, i.e. planting now for spring crops, possibly using the LEADER programme within the EU programme, or other money that might be made available, to encourage citizens and companies, businesses, to start growing more fruit and veg now.