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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the contribution of the poultry sector to the UK economy; and what discussions she has had with her counterpart in the Northern Ireland Executive on steps to support that industry in Northern Ireland.

Our poultry industry is vital to the UK economy and is one of the most successful across Europe, supporting around 73,000 jobs and contributing £3.3bn annually to the UK GDP.

We are committed to supporting the industry through, for instance, investing £160m in the UK Strategy for Agricultural Technologies. This is delivering innovations from the laboratory to the farm and includes investment in two projects in the poultry sector. We are also continuing to work with industry on access to foreign markets. There was significant growth in our non-EU exports of poultry in 2014 and we have seen an increase of 16% in total poultry meat exports since 2010. This is a strong vindication of the government-industry partnership approach in place.

My Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, and I work with Ministers in the Devolved Administrations on a range of issues, including opening access for exports from Northern Ireland.