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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of sanctions on Russia on the UK agriculture industry.

The UK has been monitoring the situation closely since the ban came into effect on 7 August.

In the UK, the ban will affect approximately £39m of agricultural produce – this is 0.2% of UK’s total food, feed and drink exports for 2013 at £18.9bn. UK producers may face lower prices in some products as producers sell what was originally intended for Russia on the EU market. Some UK businesses had goods in transit, including dairy, poultry and fish consignments, which were turned away. Our investigations show very limited market impact caused by the ban with stable prices for most products.

We recognise that the ban will have an impact on some businesses, particularly the pelagic sector of the Scottish fishing industry. At a UK level, exports of fish (mainly frozen mackerel) to Russia were approximately £18m in 2013. That was 1% of UK total fish and seafood exports and 8% of frozen fish exports but 18% of UK mackerel exports.

The cheese industry, which exported about £5.8m to Russia (1.3% of UK’s total exports) may be affected. Northern Ireland exported almost £3m worth of food (mainly dairy) to Russia in 2013/14.

The UK’s produce is world class and our priority is to minimise the potential impact of the totally unjustified Russian ban by working with trade associations and industry in identifying alternative markets. We encourage our growers to find other outlets such as processing, and to utilise existing EU Producer Organisation promotion funds.

The European Commission has now announced support measures for EU farmers and growers: €125m worth of aid for fruit and vegetable producers and €10-20m for dairy farmers to pay for the temporary storage of butter, cheese and skimmed milk powder. Both schemes will be available within the UK. On 3 September, the Commission also announced an additional €30m for EU Promotions to help the industry find other markets for products that might otherwise have been exported to Russia.

We are working with the Scottish Government, the European Commission and pelagic industry to develop new and emerging markets.