I declare that I am a member of the British Veterinary Association. It is a pleasure to introduce this Adjournment debate tonight, especially after the landmark Brexit Bill has finally passed both Houses. As we will be debating the effect of leaving the EU on the UK’s poultry meat sector, that is an important landmark.

I shall put the scale and importance of the poultry industry into some perspective for the House. UK agriculture contributes £46 billion to the economy, and for every pound invested in farming we generate £7.40. Poultry is a key part of that offering. The recent Oxford Economics report on the economic impact of the poultry meat industry included the following important facts. The poultry meat industry supported £4.6 billion of gross value added contribution to gross domestic product, which is the equivalent of 0.2% of the United Kingdom’s entire economic output. For every £1 million of economic activity that the industry generates, it supports a further £1.33 million elsewhere. In total direct and indirect employment, it supports 84,500 people throughout the entire United Kingdom, or 0.3% of the total UK workforce. The industry directly employs 37,300 people, and it supported £1.1 billion in tax contributions in 2014, or 0.2% of all tax receipts collected that year. If I were to say it is an important industry, I would be a master of understatement.

In Northern Ireland, we contribute to the vast industry I have described. In fact, one in every four chickens consumed is produced or processed in Northern Ireland. Moy Park is one of Northern Ireland’s largest employers; it is a major employer in our country. Of the 37,300 employees in the sector throughout the UK, 11,750 are employed by Moy Park. Of the £4.6 billion the industry contributes to GDP, Moy Park contributes £226 million in staff costs—a significant contribution given that Northern Ireland has a population of only 1.7 million. Of the 2,500 farms in the UK that produce poultry meat, 800 are contracted to the Moy Park supply chain. Northern Ireland accounts for more than a quarter of the 19 million birds that are slaughtered in the UK each week—in other words, 5 million birds a week.