Food and Drink from North Wales

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 2:29 pm on 15 December 2021.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 2:29, 15 December 2021

So, the food and drink industry will continue to receive significant funding through the RDP until that programme ends in 2023. Unfortunately, 'no' is the short answer to your question. Wales will lose out over £106 million of replacement EU funding for rural development over the spending review period. That's on top of the £137 million that I didn't receive from the UK Government during this financial year, so that 'not a penny less' mantra I'm afraid sounds very hollow. You will be aware that myself and my ministerial colleagues, particularly the Minister for Finance and Local Government, have continued to lobby the UK Government, particularly around the methodology that they've used to do their sums. We've now got, obviously, to take that into consideration as we bring forward the draft budget next week. I would just say, though, that food festivals, I think, are an excellent way of promoting our wonderful Welsh food and drink and I've done all I can to continue to promote them, obviously, and support them. We haven't been able to hold as many virtually this year as we would want to—sorry, in person—but we have managed to do some virtual work over the past year also.