Statement made by Secretary of State for Environment and Rural Affairs, George Eustice, on Tuesday demonstrates he already has a grip on the true figures

An extract from his statement reads:-

Coronavirus presents unprecedented challenges to the businesses we rely on to provide essential services which keep people safe – including food supply, water and waste.

Many businesses in these sectors have benefited from Government schemes to support all businesses, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, and the Small Business Grant Scheme and support for the self-employed.

Beyond this, the Government has taken specific action to support the food, farming, water and waste sectors in the delivery of critical services.

Dairy: In particular, the dairy sector has felt a significant impact as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Between 5 and 10 per cent of total milk production goes to the food service trade and there is therefore a small proportion of milk production that currently has no home. The vast majority of Britain's 10,000 dairy farmers continue to supply their contracts at the usual price and larger processors have been largely unaffected by the market disruption because of their scale and diversified nature. In order to support the affected farmers, on Friday we announced that we will set aside some elements of competition law to make it easier for processors to come together and voluntarily work out how to ease production down in order to create the space in the market for that milk that currently has no home and to support a recovery in the spot price. We have asked the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (which supports the interests of dairy farmers and the wider farming industry) and Dairy UK (which represents the processors) to coordinate a proposal and discussions are already underway.