Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 2:40 pm on 15 February 2023.
I have had discussions with the fisheries sector. I'm very aware of the reported decline. I do recognise they've had some unprecedented pressures due to leaving the European Union, the COVID pandemic, more recently the hyperinflation of fuel that has been caused by the war in Ukraine, and obviously then the cost-of-living crisis. I think a lot of these pressures are at play across all our primary production sectors.
I've asked officials to closely monitor the impact on markets and costs, and they're working with Seafish to better understand the trends and to identify areas where mitigations and interventions could possibly be made to halt the regrettable decline. I've also recently launched the Welsh marine and fisheries scheme. The marketing measures window closed last week, and officials are appraising the projects in the coming weeks. And we've got the second window—actually, I think it might have just closed this month—the energy efficiency and mitigation of climate change window, which I was asked to bring forward.
On the positive side, we're again having a Welsh pavilion at the Seafood Expo Global in Barcelona in April where we can actually promote our Welsh seafood. It's always been a very successful trade mission for us, so I was keen to support it again this year to try and do what we can for our fishing and aquaculture businesses.