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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government taking to tackle animal feed inflation.

Agricultural commodity prices are closely linked to global gas prices. Farmers are facing increased input costs including for fertiliser, feed and fuel, which we recognise are creating short-term pressures on cash flow.

On 6 May, the Government announced further steps to support farmers with cost pressures caused by demand and instability seen across the globe. Under the latest plans, Direct Payments in England will be paid in two instalments each year for the remainder of the agricultural transition period, to help farmers with their cashflow.

Successfully concluding the removal of Section 232 tariffs on UK steel and aluminium exports to the United States (US) has allowed us to remove the 25% tariff on maize imports from the US, a key ingredient for animal feed. This is a particularly important step in opening up alternative sourcing options, relieving pressure felt elsewhere in the market. Defra continues to work on removing technical barriers to trade in sourcing maize from the US, such as GM approvals. The Food Standards Agency laid the first authorisation Statutory Instrument for nine GMO events (one soyabean and eight maize) on 28 April [in England and Wales, 21 April in Scotland] with a coming into force date of 20 May [for England and Wales, 31 May for Scotland].

We continue to keep the market situation under review, by working closely with industry-led groups and key stakeholders to monitor the position on animal feed. This includes both availability and price of animal feed ingredients for all species and to identify where further mitigations may be available.