To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he plans to take to support sugar beet growers.

contribution to UK sugar production. Also, that sugar beet itself, used in crop rotations, is beneficial to soil and crop health and allows arable farms a season of “rest” from cereal production.

We are committed to promoting fairness across the food supply chain. Government uses the UK Agricultural Market Monitoring Group to understand economic relationships in the sugar sector and maintains a regular dialogue with key stakeholders in the industry to remain up to date on concerns of sugar beet growers. These allow Government to collect both data and industry intelligence on the agricultural sectors, including sugar, to understand any challenges being faced.

To date the Farming Innovation Programme (FIP) has awarded over £64 million in funding to support 105 wider broadacre sector projects. These include a project focused on developing a long-term solution to combat virus yellows, a disease transmitted by aphids that threatens English sugar beet crops. A range of the other FIP projects could have outcomes that can be applied to sugar beet production, as may projects supported by the £47 million available for Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF).