Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:20 pm on 28 February 2023.
We've all either observed or seen the steep spike in the price of vegetables and the empty shelves in our shops. The horticulture start-up and horticulture development grant schemes led last year to 19 new entrants into commercial horticulture and the expansion of 12 existing schemes. I wondered if we could have a debate in Government time on whether this is merely a short-term problem provoked by bad weather and the spike in energy costs, as described in the press, or symptomatic of an ongoing food security issue caused by our changing climate, Brexit barriers disrupting the importing of perishable goods and the domination of our food supplies by multinational companies who are mainly interested in profitability rather than ensuring supplies of nourishing food. We really do need to assess whether this demands beefing up our legislative programme or investing in more vegetables grown in Wales.