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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will provide support to farmers whose plum crops have failed as a result of experiencing frost in spring 2021.

The Government recognises the crucial role that the UK’s horticulture industry plays in both feeding the country and in promoting people’s health and well-being. Our plum farmers play an important role in this as well as to our wider economy, with production at the farm gate worth £3.4 million in 2018.

We have not received any representations from the plum sector as a result of the frost their crop has experienced this spring. However, Defra and the Devolved Administrations have established mechanisms to monitor and assess the impact of market developments across the UK and will continue to do so paying particular attention to this sector in the coming months.