3. Statement by the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs: Response to Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:03 pm on 8 April 2020.

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Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 3:03, 8 April 2020

Thank you, Andrew, for the list of questions. So, there's been a huge amount of work done from right across my portfolio, and whilst this is the first opportunity to be able to make a statement in the Senedd, I hope that—. I've been inundated with written Assembly questions and correspondence, and my department has sought to answer as quickly as possible.

You ask, firstly, around whether farmers can access funding from the economic resilience fund. I suppose there are two areas here: I think if farmers have diversified, so, for instance, if they've got a glamping business within, they certainly can. However, around normal agriculture activity, I think we need to look at a bespoke package in relation to that. So, that is an ongoing piece of work at the moment, to see if we need to look at what's on offer within the resilience fund, or whether we do need a bespoke package. Normally, we would look at a bespoke package.

Dairy is clearly a major issue, and, again, there’s significant work being done around that. Recently, I think it was on Monday, I wrote to the Secretary of State for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the UK Government, George Eustice, emphasising the need for us all to collaborate as Governments to use the powers available that we have at the moment to protect the agri-food supply chain. So, we’ve been working very closely around dairy. I have at least one or two discussions a week with the Secretary of State, and, clearly, the impact of the realignment of the supply chain is having, particularly on dairy, is significant. I think it was probably one of the first things to impact when the food service sector also collapsed very early.