2. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:07 pm on 13 July 2021.

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Photo of Jenny Rathbone Jenny Rathbone Labour 3:07, 13 July 2021

Thank you very much, Llywydd. Today, I went to collect the boxes of fruit and vegetables in order to deliver them to the local foodbank that I have been delivering to for the last 18 months. I was unable to get anything because of the crisis of supplies that is being experienced at the wholesalers in Cardiff. There simply are not enough fruit and vegetables arriving, which is really, really devastating to me, as I understand just how important it is for everybody to have access to fresh fruit and vegetables.

This is happening at a time when it should be the height of the growing season, when there is a plentiful supply of fruit and vegetables. It would appear that the problem is (a) because of a shortage of pickers to pick up the produce that people are growing—it's just being left in the fields—and (b) a shortage of lorry drivers to actually deliver the produce to the wholesale markets.

Now, the supermarkets obviously get first pick of all of the produce because they are all-powerful, but even in the supermarkets I have noticed empty shelves in places where normally there is an abundant supply of fruit and vegetables. So, this, to me, is a real wake-up call on our food security, at a time when—the disruption to our supplies that is happening as a result of our departure from the European Union. This has never happened to me at the height of the pandemic, so I wonder, Minister—and I appreciate this is in your portfolio—whether we can have a statement on how we are going to manage this situation in the much more difficult months when we are needing to import all of our supplies.