AQW 18901/17-22

Ms Claire Sugden
Independent
East Londonderry

Tabled Date: 14/05/2021
Answered On Date: 25/05/2021
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (i) to detail any plans or options he has to facilitate an increase in the farm-gate prices that smaller, family-owned farms receive for their meat; and (ii) for his assessment of the threat of industrial farming on such farms.

Answer:

Farms operate within an open competitive environment where it is not possible, nor desirable, to engineer a situation where a particular subset of farms face a different price regime for a given product. Product differentiation is, of course, possible, (e.g. organic production) but that is not necessarily related to farm size.

'Industrial' farming is an emotive term with no particular definition. I recognise that for economic reasons, average farm sizes have been increasing for many generations and that today’s modest family farm would probably seem large and “industrial” to our forebearers. In developing a new agricultural support framework, I am considering the needs of the entire farming sector. It has been a long time since we have been able to shape farm policy to the needs of our farmers and I want to make the most of this new opportunity.