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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure the long term sustainability of milk production in the United Kingdom.

The Government understands the concerns of British farmers over the current pressures on milk prices caused by the volatility of the global market. We want a competitive and resilient dairy industry that can take advantage of opportunities.

We will continue to work closely with the dairy industry as a whole to manage price volatility. At last week’s farming resilience summit George Eustice discussed ways of offering support to address the problems of severe market volatility with the NFU, high street banks, and farming industry experts.

It is important to remember that the long-term prospects are bright with exports at record levels. We are helping the dairy industry to take advantage of opportunities such as opening new export markets. The £141 million Countryside Productivity Scheme will include measures to help dairy farmers. We are pushing for better country of origin labelling for British dairy products.