6. Statement by the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd: BlasCymru/TasteWales

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:32 pm on 30 January 2024.

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Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 5:32, 30 January 2024

Thank you for that. One of the things that I really wanted to do with the first BlasCymru back in 2017 was bring the world to Wales, and I think we've done that. The team of officials who work on this did a brilliant job, and they've just built on that success year on year now. As I say, we've now had four. During the COVID pandemic, obviously the number of international buyers coming over dropped and it will take a little while to build that up again, but we did see, as I say, 11 countries—. Buyers from 11 countries came to this year's BlasCymru, and I think that's really to be welcomed. We also had the BBC Food and Farming Awards come and film during BlasCymru, which again I think was another feather in our cap, and it was good to see the coverage that we had in relation to that. 

As you say, the drink sector is so important, and I mentioned about our cluster networks, which I think—. We only do it within the food and drink part of the portfolio but I think the clusters really work very well, where you have academia, you have suppliers, you have Government all working together for that one purpose. Tonight—I'm sure there are a few Members in the Chamber who will be there—the drinks cluster is meeting and we're launching the beers and spirits strategy going forward, and I think that will help us as well with our exports. 

You mentioned global events, and I know we had a discussion in the Chamber about the Rugby World Cup that was held in Japan and how you couldn't buy Wrexham Lager in Wrexham—you could only buy it in Japan, because they couldn't fly it out quickly enough. And it's really important that we look at those events that have that global coverage and be part of that. Certainly, as we grow our food and drink sector, there are more and more companies who want to be part of those global events and we'll be very happy to support them. 

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