My Lords, this Government are backing British farmers to create a productive, profitable and sustainable future for farming. We will always consider whether overseas produce has an unfair advantage and any impact that it may have. Where necessary, we will be prepared to use the full range of powers at our disposal to protect our most sensitive sectors. We will set out our wider plans to boost farming profitability and long-term viability later this year.
My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for her reply. UK food self-sufficiency has fallen below 65%. Britain increasingly relies on volatile international markets while holding its own farmers to higher standards than most of our trading partners. The Batters review was unequivocal that food security is national security, so, yes or no, will the Government commit to treating agriculture as a sensitive sector in all future trade negotiations and ensure that no future trade deal allows imports produced to lower welfare or environmental standards to undercut British farmers?
We have been very clear when working on our trading agreements with other countries that our standards are sacrosanct. We will not allow deals that undermine the standards that we have in this country. We are investing £11.8 billion in the farming budget over this Parliament, so we are absolutely serious about building our farming road map and responding positively to the Farming Profitability Review from the noble Baroness, Lady Batters. It is really important that any products that are produced to different environmental or animal welfare standards can be placed on the UK market only if they comply with the strict requirements that we put in place.
My Lords, the way to help with this significant issue would be the Government achieving their own manifesto promise of getting at least 50% of food supply to the public sector produced by British food producers. Can the Minister share with us what is preventing the Government achieving that with some urgency?
The noble Baroness is absolutely correct that we talked in our manifesto about the importance of public procurement in supporting our food industry. The Procurement Act allows contracts for certain value thresholds also to be reserved for smaller UK suppliers. We want to look at the big suppliers and the smaller suppliers in order that we can deliver that manifesto commitment as best we can, because 50% is a large amount of our food procurement. Last year, we had a new national procurement policy statement, which puts emphasis on weighting environmental and social outcomes in government contracts. British farmers and local suppliers will be very well placed to meet those outcomes.
My Lords, one way to improve the competitiveness of UK farming is through innovation. The Government have invested a considerable amount in research and innovation in relation to agriculture and the food system through UKRI. As a result of that, the UK is at the forefront of a number of novel technologies, including precision breeding and the use of AI to detect animal diseases. In negotiating a new SPS agreement with our colleagues in Europe, will there be a carve-out for these new technologies so that we can continue to develop and use them even if we have a new agreement and dynamic alignment with the European Union?
I am going to have to disappoint the noble Lord in that I am not able to discuss any specific carve-outs that we are looking at during the negotiations with the European Union. What I can say is that the innovative areas that he referred to are under discussion, because they are very important both for our scientific communities and for our farming communities, and those discussions are ongoing.
My Lords, I refer to my registered interest as a member of the Government’s Veterinary Medicines Working Group. In so doing, I commend the work of my noble friend the Minister in achieving agreements with the European Union in that regard. Further to that, can I urge her, working with the EU as part of the reset, to ensure that we achieve an SPS veterinary and phytosanitary agreement that will help promote and protect our farming industry and food security, not least in Northern Ireland?
My noble friend is absolutely right that working with the European Union around sanitary and phytosanitary issues regarding veterinary medicines is very important and something that we are clearly focused on. I also thank her for her role in the Veterinary Medicines Working Group. The whole group came together to do the best we could to ensure that veterinary medicines were still available in Northern Ireland after the end of the grace period at the end of last year. We will continue to work together on how we move forward within the EU reset.
My Lords, the Government have said that they do not expect the EU–Mercosur trade deal to impact UK food production, supply or security, or indeed UK imports of agricultural products from the bloc. However, the British Agriculture Bureau has taken a market-wide view and has warned that the deal risks increasing competition on the EU market, potentially displacing products on to the UK market. What is the Minister’s assessment of this? I declare my interest as a dairy and beef farmer.
It is important to say that the UK values its relationship with the Mercosur countries and we are committed to identifying ways to continue to strengthen our trade relations. We are not currently negotiating a free trade agreement with Mercosur, but our trade strategy is clear that we will consider new free trade agreements where there is a comprehensive deal that makes sense at the time.
My Lords, in relation to the latest free trade deal with India, there is every reason to believe that Indian dairy products will be allowed into the UK market without reciprocal rights for British dairy farmers to export their products to India. How can such a deal be done when we are trying to support British farmers?
On the India deal, we maintained tariffs on several products, including pork, chicken and eggs. That was because we had concerns about animal welfare standards and the potential impact on British farmers. That is what we will do and the position we will take when looking at trade deals with any country.