1. Will the Minister make a statement on how the Welsh Government is supporting the food and drink industry in north Wales? OAQ55170

Thank you. Welsh Government supports the growth of the food and drink industry across the whole of Wales. We've now achieved a turnover of £7.473 billion for the food and farming industry in Wales. This far exceeds the challenging target of achieving £7 billion we set ourselves and the sector back in 2014.

Thank you for that answer, Minister. As chair of the cross-party group on beer and pubs in Wales, I have recently undertaken a number of visits to independent breweries with Members from across the Chamber, and I look forward to working with many more Assembly Members to promote Welsh beer and cider within their constituencies. Minister, issues that have been raised with me include assistance in taking full advantage of unique opportunities to promote Welsh beers across the world—opportunities like the Rugby World Cup and the six nations, which coincides with Welsh beer week. And I have also had a number of breweries and brewers raise the issue of the future deposit-return scheme, which I know falls under the responsibility of the Deputy Minister. However, your department works directly with producers through the Welsh food and drinks cluster. So, Minister, can you assure me that your department is working closely with that of the Deputy Minister's, and the Minister for international relations, both to support and promote the Welsh brewing industry in the future?

Thank you. I was very pleased to visit Wrexham Lager with you in your capacity as the chair of the cross-party group on beer and pubs. And I think Wrexham Lager probably is a classic example of making the most of the opportunities, and I know when the Rugby World Cup was on in Japan, I think they had to send out extra resources on about three occasions because it was so popular out there. I can reassure you that my department works closely with other governmental departments. We work right across Government. You mentioned the deposit-return scheme. Work is developing on that. That's being taken forward as a joint project with both the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Northern Ireland Government.

Back in July we published the responses to an initial consultation on the proposals for a scheme covering Wales, Northern Ireland and England, and, again, it was overwhelmingly positive, the response that we received to that consultation. I'm also putting funding into the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre in your own constituency in relation to decarbonisation in relation to the food and drink sector as a whole, and, obviously, reduced packaging is one area that we're particularly looking at. 

We could all have a brilliant banquet with the fine food and drink produce that emanates from Aberconwy. We have award-winning gins, wine, meat, seafood, cheese, chocolate and so much more on offer, so it just goes to show the incredible potential that food tourism has in Aberconwy, and, indeed, across north Wales. Now, according to 'The Food Tourism Action Plan for Wales 2015-2020', food tourism is about helping visitors to uncover our local culinary gems, not just leaving it to chance that they will find them by themselves. Five key things were identified, and interesting ideas were put forward, such as developing a consumer-facing food tourism website. Have you thought, Minister, of building on this by creating some food trails, and possibly on a constituency basis across Wales? Thank you.

We've certainly looked at food trails, and we've also looked at a wine trail, because, again, the wine industry in Wales is really booming, I would say; I think we've got now about 15 vineyards across Wales. So, we've certainly looked at a wine trail. I'm not sure that we've looked at food trails on a constituency by constituency basis. I have to say, though, in relation to food tourism—and you mentioned gin, and I presume you're referring to Aber Falls—I was in Aber Falls about two weeks ago, and they're building a brilliant visitor centre, where they're hoping to bring in other business, not just food and drink businesses, but other businesses also to work from there. So, food tourism I think offers many opportunities, not just in north Wales, but across the whole of Wales.