Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has made a recent assessment of the viability of the dairy industry.

We recognise that the dairy industry has recently faced a range of challenges including the impact of Covid-19 and the increase in input costs arising from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, we have a resilient and dynamic dairy sector and have acted to support it in a number of ways. This includes the introduction of advance Basic Payment Scheme payments and support for an industry approach on the use of urea fertilisers. We have also recently announced a £1m bespoke export support fund for the dairy sector, with a particular focus on support for SMEs. Following the supply chain fairness review we will shortly be laying regulations on contractual regulation in the dairy sector.

We continue to monitor the dairy market and to work closely with key sector stakeholders.