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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to support British dairy industry producers whose payments by First Milk have been delayed.

I have spoken to the Chairman of First Milk to discuss the recent announcement on milk prices and the impact this will have on farmers. We are closely monitoring the situation and are in contact with milk industry experts to consider if any further action is appropriate.

I will continue to work closely with the dairy industry as a whole to manage price volatility. At this week’s farming resilience summit I will be discussing ways of offering support to address the problems of severe market volatility with the NFU, high street banks, and farming industry experts.

The £141 million Countryside Productivity Scheme will include measures to help dairy farmers. We have given dairy farmers the opportunity to unite in Producer Organisations so they have greater influence in the marketplace. We are helping the dairy industry to take advantage of opportunities such as opening new export markets and pushing for better country of origin labelling for British dairy products.