The Welsh Red Meat Levy

Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 1:32 pm on 3 October 2018.

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Photo of Andrew RT Davies Andrew RT Davies Conservative 1:32, 3 October 2018

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for that answer. As you know, from these benches, we've been very supportive of change in this particular area. We're talking significant sums of money that's lost to the Welsh livestock industry. I do agree with you it's disappointing that it wasn't in the Agriculture Bill and we will use our influence as best we can to obviously try and influence that decision. But what is important, with the current arrangements, is that there is an increase in processing capacity here in Wales, in particular in the beef sector, because at the moment, obviously, the levy is derived from where the animal is processed. We've seen a contraction in processing capacity here in Wales over successive years. What confidence can you have that there will be little or no more contraction in the processing sector and, in fact, that we can move into a period where we will see significant investment in red meat processing here in Wales to increase the ability to add value to product here, where the country fattens that animal?