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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to encourage the sale of UK produce to new global markets.

In October 2013 we launched the ‘Food and Drink – International Action Plan’. This has resulted in over 4,000 companies receiving Government support and contributed to securing nearly £1bn of business for these companies. We have opened over 100 new markets for exports of animal and animal products to non-EU markets and created a faster, more efficient electronic health certification process. We are in the process of developing a new Exports Action Plan with the industry, which is due to be launched early next year.

Defra Ministers continue to champion our excellent food and drink overseas. I visited Anuga (the world’s largest food and drink trade show) earlier this year and the Secretary of State has recently been to China to further market access discussions and support the launch of the ‘Food is GREAT’ campaign there. Earlier this month she also set out our plans for Great British Food, which will celebrate the wonderful food and drink the UK has to offer.