Brexit (Impact on Food and Drink)

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 16 May 2019.

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Photo of Edward Mountain Edward Mountain Conservative

I welcome the debate, as it has given Scottish Conservative members another opportunity to say how much we support Scotland’s food and drink sector. We have a vision for ensuring that Scotland’s food and drink industry goes on to achieve more success—we published that vision in our document “A New Approach to Scottish Farming” some months ago—and it is time that we had some vision from this Scottish National Party Government. In my view, that has been sorely lacking.

As the cabinet secretary knows, promises are easily made, but they are more difficult to deliver. Where is the good food nation bill that was promised back in May 2017? Where is the Scottish agriculture bill that was talked about more than two months ago? They are nowhere to be seen; they are not even in the SNP’s programme for government. It is no wonder that farming and food experts are beginning to lose confidence in the Government. I do not need to remind the cabinet secretary that, only last week, Jonnie Hall, the NFUS’s director of policy, stated:

“In many senses there is no vision in Scottish Government in terms of where it wants to be”.

I could not agree more. I agree with Jonnie Hall, and I agree with the farmers in the countryside.

If we are to grow our food and drink industry so that it is worth £30 billion by 2030, as we all aspire it to be, we need to ensure that the Government’s ambitions match the ambitions of farmers, fishermen and producers across the whole of Scotland. I call on the cabinet secretary to stop dithering and start delivering. That point was made by Donald Cameron and Peter Chapman, who highlighted that the common fisheries policy has been bad for Scotland and that there will be plenty of opportunities once we get out of it. They also highlighted the fact that it is clear that the Scotch whisky industry is supportive of the exit deal that has been put forward, and they reiterated that the Scottish Government lacks vision, which is being said in the fields across Scotland.