4. Topical Questions

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:22 pm on 16 October 2019.

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Photo of Llyr Gruffydd Llyr Gruffydd Plaid Cymru 3:22, 16 October 2019

(Translated)

Thank you for that response. Of course, there are a number of questions emerging from what has happened. First of all, people are scratching their heads and asking themselves, 'What went wrong?' Because, just in 2017, the company was given £22 million in investment—£5 million of that from the Welsh Government, a further £2 million from Finance Wales—and then, months later, at the end of the financial year up to March 2018, the company was registering losses of £5 million and then £2 million again in the last financial year. So, we want an assurance from Government, and we would want to see the Government showing evidence that you have done the work of researching into these plans before making that investment.

The Government, as I've seen in press reports, have said that you were aware that there were difficulties within the company and that you had been working with them for 18 months to try and work through those issues. Can you explain, perhaps, what kind of resources you provided to that end and why you didn't succeed in turning the situation around?

You mentioned the future of the workforce, and we hope very much, as you suggest, that the Government will turn every stone to ensure that there are employment opportunities for those who will lose their jobs. But the greatest question is on the future of the site. After such a substantial investment, then clearly it is a site that has brand new kit. I would assume that there would be potential to attract alternative investors to try and process milk on that site. I would want to hear what steps you are taking to attract those investors.

And the timing of going into the hands of administrators also means—it happened, in fact, just at the time when the farmers and milk producers were supposed to be provided with their cheques for milk provision in September. That means that the company has had six weeks of milk free of charge, and that will cause great losses to those farmers. So, what work is the Government doing to try and ensure that they will be paid, or receive some sort of payment, or at least be compensated in some way for that milk?

And what does this development tell us about the state of the milk processing sector in Wales? Last year, we lost Arla in Llandyrnog, now Tomlinsons in the same part of Wales, to all intents and purposes, has gone. The Government, and all of us, put great emphasis on the importance of developing a Welsh brand. Well, as a result of this, the milk won't be branded as Welsh milk but as British milk. So, it does, of course, undermine the efforts of Government to build the food and drink sector in Wales, and I want to know what you are doing to build a more viable dairy sector here in Wales.