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

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:06 pm on 13 May 2020.

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Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 6:06, 13 May 2020

Thank you, Joyce. Clearly, the agricultural sector workforce was something that concerned us, particularly with—I think it's about 30 per cent can be people from Europe, and obviously that was going to be severely affected. So you're quite right, we did launch the skills match scheme. I haven't got any figures to date—I was expecting some advice at the end of this week. Lantra are running the scheme for us, and I think it's really important.

And it's not just around fruit picking or vegetable picking, we're really concerned about sheep shearing, for instance, because again, there's often a number of people who come over from New Zealand and Australia, and as you'll be aware, people normally go from Wales to Australia and New Zealand to do sheep shearings too. So, we're looking at that, and also around contractors who do slurry removal, for instance. So I think there's a huge number of workers that we are going to see. So I'd be very happy to provide an update when I have that analysis.

It's also something that we're working with the UK Government on. I'm a member of the ministerial inter-governmental group, which meets every day, but over the last few weeks, we've discussed the workforce in great detail. I've mentioned previously the horticultural sector only makes up 1 per cent of the agricultural sector here in Wales, so I don't think we've been impacted in a way that perhaps other countries have, but it's something that we're keeping a very close eye on, and I'd certainly be very happy to provide an update in due course.