Supporting Welsh Farmers

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 2:08 pm on 17 July 2019.

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Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 2:08, 17 July 2019

I absolutely agree with you that we need to look after our farmers in Wales. The biggest threat to them is Brexit, and the uncertainty around Brexit. So you ask what we'll be doing in the next 12 months; well, one of the things that we might have to do is a rescue package for the sheep sector, because as farmers say to me, 'What happens on 1 November if we do crash out of the European Union with no deal, and I take my lambs to the market and there's nobody there to buy them?' So that is one thing that we may have to do over the next 12 months.

What we have been doing is trying to make our farms as productive as possible, so I mentioned the funding I gave to ensure that red meat benchmarking was undertaken. We'd previously done that in relation to the dairy sector, so there's a huge amount of work going into the agricultural sector from this Government to ensure that the future is bright for the sector, which is so important to Wales. But I have to say, the biggest threat at the moment is a 'no deal' Brexit.