Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Cat Smith and Liz McInnes(8 years, 6 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Cat Smith (Lancaster and Fleetwood) (Lab)
5. What progress her Department has made on ensuring that farmers receive a fair price for milk.
Liz McInnes (Heywood and Middleton) (Lab)
8. What progress her Department has made on ensuring that farmers receive a fair price for milk.
The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (George Eustice)
These are undoubtedly very difficult times for many dairy farmers. The combination of oversupply around the world coupled with a weakening of demand in major markets such as China has led to a very depressed commodity price. We secured a £26 million support fund last November to alleviate short-term cash-flow pressure. We introduced a dairy supply chain code to improve dealings between dairy processors and farmers. Longer term, we are working on a project to introduce a dairy futures market to help farmers manage future risks. We are exploring the potential to facilitate investment in new dairy processing capacity, so that we can add value to our production.