2. Will the Minister make a statement on the Welsh Dairy Support Scheme which has recently opened for applications? OQ55320

Diolch. The dairy support scheme opened on 18 June to support farmers hardest hit by the exceptional market conditions caused by COVID-19. Eligible farmers will be entitled to up to £10,000 to help them continue to meet fixed costs and sustain production capacity, without impacts on animal welfare and the environment.

Thank you for your answer. I have been contacted, I have to say, by a number of farmers who are literally just a few pounds short of meeting the 25 per cent threshold of a fall in their income, which would then make them, of course, eligible to qualify for the support scheme. But these are farmers who have incurred significant losses, but, of course, subsequently, they get nothing, no support whatsoever, because, of course, they continue to be ineligible for all other support schemes, particularly, of course, the economic resilience fund.

Now, the European Commission has currently included a COVID-19 measure within the European agricultural fund for rural development, and Members of the European Parliament have now voted to allow for a one-off lump sum to be made to farmers of €7,000, with up to 2 per cent of the rural development plan budget, plus co-financing of EU funds, allowed for this measure. So, will you consider the implementation of this measure so that we can help ease the cash flow problems on so many Welsh farms?

Diolch, Llyr, and you're quite right, the EU Commission have done that. And certainly, that would be for us to decide if we can do that and it's something that I've asked officials to look at.

Good afternoon, Minister. The dairy support fund is very welcome for farmers in Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire, but they have asked me a number of questions on it. One of which was: why did you decide to calculate it on the price of the milk unit rather than 25 per cent of the overall loss of income? Because some of them pointed out that, although the price that they may get per litre of milk remains the same, or isn't quite 25 per cent less, they've actually lost massive amounts of volume. That leads me on to a second point, which is: I wonder if you could give us an outline of what you might be able to do to help increase the take-up of milk and dairy products by, not just the general public, but by helping farmers to diversify more, because, as we know, the hospitality industry has really crashed and that's where a lot of my farmers have lost their marketplace.

Thank you, Angela. You raise a similar point to Llyr, and I suppose I should say that there are always winners and losers when you have these schemes. Unfortunately, there has to be a cut-off point. It's a finite budget; we haven't got huge amounts of funding to play around with. So, the scheme was introduced to support those farmers hardest hit by the exceptional market conditions that, obviously, the diary sector suffered due to COVID-19. It does require farmers to meet the eligibility criteria of a milk price reduction of 25 per cent or more, as you said. That was based on the analysis of the milk buyers who face the highest impact as a result of the crisis. It was also designed in response to decisions that were outside of the control of the dairy farmers, so primarily as a consequence of the actions of the milk buyer.

I think you make a very important point about encouraging more people, in relation to eating and drinking more milk and cheese and dairy products et cetera. You may be aware of the new Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board consumer campaign. That was part-funded by Welsh Government, UK Government and Scottish Government. So, that is primarily aimed at increasing consumer demand for milk by 3 per cent. I'll be able to update Members on the success of that scheme over the next few weeks.

I'm disappointed the Welsh Government hasn't managed to find the capital needed to increase Welsh horticulture production—

Can you just move closer to your microphone, Jenny? You're not being heard completely. Yes, can you put your headset on, Jenny?

Yes, sorry—apologies. Apologies to all.

I just wanted to say that, whilst I'm disappointed that the Welsh Government hasn't found the money to increase horticulture production at this important growing season, given that food security in fruit and veg in Wales is dangerously low at 1 per cent, and we don't know what's going to happen in the future as a result of coronavirus in terms of imports, nevertheless, I do welcome the scheme to provide the compensation to small dairy farmers who've lost 25 per cent or more of their income because of the closure of cafes and restaurants.

I wonder if you could tell us what progress has been made on increasing capacity to convert the surplus milk into cheese and butter, and to use the EU public intervention scheme to store milk, butter and cheese in order to prevent milk being poured down the drain in future. Also, I wonder if you can just tell us what the total amount set aside for the dairy rescue scheme is. 

Thank you, Jenny. We're all getting used to new ways of working, aren't we? Just about your comments about horticulture, as you say, it does make up only 1 per cent of the Welsh agricultural sector, so there's massive potential there to increase. And you'll know, from answers I gave you during committee scrutiny, that this is an area we are looking at and how we do enable, if farmers want to, to go into the horticultural part of the sector. 

In relation to your questions around the dairy sector, I think, at the moment, it's around £0.5 million, but I will have to check that out. And we're certainly looking at the applications now. I think we've had about 91 applications in, and I know about 11 have been processed already and the money will be reaching farmers, I hope, by the end of this week. The private storage aid schemes for skimmed milk powder, butter and cheese were announced by the European Commission and opened on 7 May. I know the cheese quota particularly was very well received, and that allocation has now been filled, but applications do continue to be received for butter. The non-collection of milk amounted to a very small number of cases, and non-collection has been included as part of the dairy support scheme, as this obviously was outside the control of the dairy farmer.  But I absolutely recognise how upsetting that was. Even for a small number of farmers, it was incredibly upsetting and it's something we would want to avoid.