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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to help farmers maximise cereal production for export to offset global supply shortages due to the war in Ukraine.

To support our farmers we are bringing forward half of this year's BPS payment as an advance injection of cash to farm businesses and have delayed changes to the use of urea fertiliser until at least spring 2023. Farmers will be further supported through new slurry storage grants as of this year, helping meet the Farming Rules for Water and reducing dependence on artificial fertilisers by improving storage of organic nutrients.

UK cereals are mainly produced for the domestic market, and whilst the UK is 88% self-sufficient in domestically produced cereals, we do also export. It is not for the Government to dictate to famers, who are free to react to market signals, what crops to plant, or where that produce should be sold or exported.

We continue to keep the market situation under review through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group, which monitors UK agricultural markets including price, supply, inputs, trade and recent developments. We have also increased our engagement with industry to supplement our analysis with real-time intelligence and to identify where mitigations are available.