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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the dairy sector in England.

Global gas prices have a major impact on agricultural commodities. We are very aware of the significant turbulence in international commodity markets following Russian's invasion of Ukraine and are closely monitoring the market situation.

The Government does not underestimate the level of pressure that our dairy farmers are facing. While substantial increases in farmgate milk prices paid by milk purchasers are helping dairy farmers to offset increased input costs and to maintain production, we are aware that input cost pressures are leading to a period of significant uncertainty and adjustment across the sector.

The Government has recently announced steps to assist farmers with the availability of fertilisers for the coming growing season to help address uncertainty amongst growers and keep costs down for farmers. These include delays to changes to the use of urea; revised and improved statutory guidance on the use of slurry; and the publication of further details of the Sustainable Farming Incentive. The Government has announced that it will pay farmers to help with the costs of sowing nitrogen fixing plants and green manures to reduce dependence on manufactured fertilisers, and that farmers will be further supported through new slurry storage grants.

On 31 March, Minister Prentis hosted the first meeting of the Fertiliser Roundtable with key industry bodies to discuss potential mitigations to the challenges which global supply pressures are causing. Ministers will continue to meet with key industry bodies for further fertiliser round-table sessions in the coming months, to help identify and mitigate potential risks

We are working closely with the industry to identify where mitigations are available to the challenges they face. 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.