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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the effect of sanctions on the United Kingdom dairy industry in terms of the loss of exports and their value to the United Kingdom industry.

Based on past export performance, the sanctions imposed by Russia on the United Kingdom affected an estimated 0.2 per cent of the UK’s total food, feed and drink exports which include £5.8 million worth of exports from our domestic cheese industry.

However, globally, our dairy exports are at record levels, topping £1.4 billion last year, a 51 per cent increase since 2009.