The hon. Gentleman is right. Some troubling questions remain to be answered about Dairy Farmers of Britain, although it is important to say that the company is not entirely reflective of farming co-operatives and that we should keep faith with co-operatives, which are one vehicle for farmers to achieve a greater return on their product. The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee is carrying out an investigation into what happened at Dairy Farmers of Britain, and some unanswered questions will need to be addressed.
My constituency has witnessed the outstanding success story of Laurence Harries, who farms near Cilgerran in the north of my constituency. His award-winning Daioni brand of flavoured organic milk drinks is appearing all over the UK and internationally. As I am sure you are aware, Dr. McCrea, Daioni is the Welsh word for goodness. Laurence Harries says that a few years ago he""set up with a single tanker, a couple of lorries and a lot of wishful thinking"."
Last year, he secured a deal to supply the academy and youth teams at Chelsea football club with Daioni milk drinks. He also supplies the Welsh rugby union. A year ago, I was on a Eurostar trip to Paris as part of a Conservative joint working group meeting with French parliamentarians from the Union for a Popular Movement, and the milk that we were served was Daioni organic milk from my constituency. Although it is a high-value, niche brand, it is an example of what can be achieved when good farming skills and excellent business acumen are combined. However, even Laurence Harries would admit that he is exceptional. For the larger number of milk producers in my constituency who supply the generic liquid milk market, the last few years have not been happy.
The dairy sector constitutes 18 per cent. of the agriculture industry in the UK and more than 30 per cent. of agricultural production in Wales. However, the falling number of dairy farmers and the decline in milk production are continuing across Wales and the UK, with a growing concentration of milk production in particular geographical areas. I have seen figures that suggest that the number of UK dairy farmers has halved since 1997, and the Welsh Assembly Government have estimated that 26 farmers leave the dairy industry on average every week. One in 10 farmers say that they will leave the industry within two years. Over the past five years in Wales, the number of producers has fallen by a third.
We are therefore seeing falling numbers of farmers, accompanied by falling numbers of dairy cattle, falling milk production and the closure of processing plants. UK milk production has fallen by 8 per cent. since 1997 and is now at its lowest level for more than 30 years, although Dairy UK, the trade body representing the dairy processing sector, takes an upbeat view and believes that production has now stabilised and may even be creeping up again.
Wales has seen a 7 per cent. fall in cattle numbers in the past five years, and more than 900 redundancies have been announced in the Welsh milk processing sector, resulting in major changes to regional processing capabilities. In his response, I am sure that the Minister will maintain that milk production volumes have remained broadly static in the past 10 years, but as far as I can see the trend has been downwards. I would therefore welcome his comments about where we stand on dairy imports and about what the trend is, particularly in the context of national food security.
Dairy Farming
Proceeding contribution from
Stephen Crabb
(Conservative)
in the House of Commons on Wednesday, 27 January 2010.
It occurred during Adjournment debate on Dairy Farming.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
504 c260-1WH 
Session
2009-10
Chamber / Committee
Westminster Hall
Librarians' tools
Timestamp
2023-12-05 22:40:29 +0000
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