Contact/Cyswllt:  Sian Cliff
02920 898342 / sian.cliff@wales.gov.uk

Welsh Liberal Democrat Mick Bates AM is demanding tougher action to support local produce, after discovering that there are no accessible statistics on the amount of local and imported lamb sold in major retailers across the UK and Wales.

“The catastrophic impact of the latest foot and mouth outbreaks on the farming industry has highlighted the need for more support for produce that has been prepared in Wales and contains all Welsh ingredients. It is at times like this that we realise how important it is to support our local economies if we are to develop sustainable local communities for the future.

“Tesco has recently been brought to account over misleading labelling. This highlights the need to ensure that there is clear information available for our consumers over where food is produced and prepared – equally important is the need to monitor the amount of local and imported food sold so that we can understand our market better and give more support for local produce where required.

“Statistics on the amount of imported and locally produced food sold in large stores used to be available but now this data is collected on the basis of barcodes, which do not differentiate between origin. If this information used to be available then why can it not be available once again?

“Monitoring the amount of local and imported produce sold in major retailers will encourage major supermarkets to compete over who sells the most local food, which will be a tremendous support for our local industries. Figures must be made available so that we can see which retailers are really committed to supporting local produce and which need to be encouraged to do more.

“A strong domestic market is key to ensuring a sustainable future for our local industries. The Labour-Plaid Government must take action to demand that all major retailers monitor the origin of their produce, to support our local Welsh producers in times of need and secure the survival of local industries for the future.”


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