00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 I'm delighted this morning to welcome to the stage
00:15 both First Minister of Scotland Humza Yousaf
00:18 and Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform,
00:20 and the Islands, Mairi Gings-Strang.
00:22 Before I ask the First Minister to come to the podium
00:25 and speak, I would like to make a few short comments.
00:29 First of all, as an industry, we
00:31 realize the commitments there are
00:33 on all of our political representatives.
00:35 And we fully appreciate the fact that we
00:37 have both the First Minister and the Cabinet Secretary
00:40 here joining us today.
00:42 This, I hope, means that there's a real recognition
00:45 of the importance of the agricultural industry
00:47 in Scotland, especially as we now also
00:50 have a new appointment under the agricultural remit in Jim
00:53 Fairlie.
00:55 First of all, an enhanced budget for agriculture
00:58 and a multi-annual financial framework
01:00 to be delivered into the rural economy that
01:03 rewards the industry fairly.
01:05 Secondly, to push a Scottish first program
01:09 when it comes to public procurement
01:11 for the world-renowned food and drink we have here in Scotland.
01:15 Thirdly, to fully return the £61 million
01:18 of unallocated funds as a matter of urgency
01:21 back into the rural portfolio.
01:24 Fourthly, to enable fairness throughout the whole supply
01:27 chain.
01:28 And last, but certainly by no means least,
01:30 for the sake of the economy, to scrap the greenhouse agreement
01:34 with all the issues that's impinging
01:35 on Scottish agriculture.
01:37 First Minister, if these asks are all delivered,
01:40 then Scottish agriculture will not only
01:42 build a greater economy in Scotland,
01:44 but it will also help the Scottish Government meet
01:46 their goal of being recognized across the globe
01:49 for all the right reasons.
01:51 Ladies and gentlemen, would you please give a warm welcome
01:53 to the First Minister of Scotland, Sir.
01:56 [APPLAUSE]
01:58 Thanks for that, Martin.
02:05 Good morning, everybody.
02:07 Thank you so much for the warm welcome.
02:10 And we can definitely do a number of the five asks.
02:12 There might be one or two that might
02:14 be a bit challenging for me.
02:15 But you may have seen that yesterday was a rather
02:17 great performance in Scottish politics.
02:18 And I'm very pleased to have also
02:20 appointed a Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity
02:23 with Jimmy Fairlie, who's here as well.
02:26 And he tells me he knows a thing or two about farming.
02:28 I can confirm that the 2024 payment strategy will match
02:31 the timings that you saw in 2023.
02:34 So hopefully that gives you a degree of certainty
02:37 and assurance.
02:38 And that means, of course, that the first payments
02:40 for EPS and credit will be hitting your bank
02:42 accounts in September.
02:44 The full amount, that full 61 million
02:48 will absolutely be returned to the portfolio,
02:52 will be used to support you and your members,
02:56 will be committed in full as part of future budgets.
02:59 Constrained by the budget we receive from the UK government,
03:04 500 million taken out of our budget over the last two years
03:08 in real terms.
03:09 Exports of Scottish food and drink--
03:11 I can see the team from Scottish Food and Drink here.
03:13 Incredible, 8.1 billion in 2022.
03:18 Of course, we don't have certainty
03:21 from the UK government in terms of funding commitments
03:23 from 2025.
03:25 We need clarity from the UK government
03:28 about the future of rural funding after 2025.
03:30 And now, currently as it stands, we
03:32 don't have any idea what the Conservative, the Scottish,
03:34 and more likely an incoming Labour government
03:37 is going to do in that regard.
03:38 So we'll continue to press Westminster for that.
03:40 And O'Mary writes regularly and engages regularly
03:43 with UK government.
03:44 Doesn't always get an answer, I'm afraid,
03:46 which is here stretching that Scotland, the brand,
03:48 Scotland's food, your brand is world class,
03:51 known right across the world, loved right across the world.
03:55 Your success is the country's success.
03:58 And my job as First Minister is to make
04:01 sure you continue to flourish.
04:02 Thank you very much and look forward to your questions.
04:04 [APPLAUSE]
04:08 The cabinet secretary here, Marie Guzman,
04:14 is going to take some questions as well.
04:15 And putting money into broadband restoration
04:20 and still having unintended consequences
04:22 of that introduction of a rodent that's caused a lot of grief
04:26 is going to be a consistent cause for concern
04:29 because it's going to happen again.
04:30 And that's whether it's beavers, it's sea eagles,
04:33 it's over a bigger, larger number of badgers
04:35 that's causing a huge amount of grief within Scotland.
04:39 In terms of the point about beavers,
04:41 I think it's one that's well made.
04:44 We need to be really alive and aware
04:46 to the unintended consequences of our policy.
04:49 In relation to sea eagles, there's
04:50 going to be a review of that policy and that action plan,
04:53 which is taking place this year.
04:55 And there are also a number of pieces of work
04:58 being done in relation to badgers.
05:00 This is a question for both the First Minister
05:02 and the cabinet secretary.
05:04 And public procurement is basically
05:06 leading to huge quantities of imported food.
05:09 Now, we think the Scottish public sector
05:11 should be prioritising Scottish produce first.
05:14 And purchasing of produce to supply to schools,
05:17 hospitals, et cetera, should be, as you say,
05:20 on quality, not on price, which is actually
05:23 the case that's happening.
05:25 Could the First Minister give us his commitment
05:28 and the cabinet secretary's commitment,
05:29 because I haven't discussed it with you,
05:31 that this is going to be the case
05:32 and that you will drive us forward
05:34 to make it Scottish produce first?
05:36 I can give you a personal commitment.
05:37 That person will look at where we are
05:39 in regards to public procurement contracts.
05:43 Again, for me, it could be a win-win.
05:45 Of course, we've got to factor in price.
05:47 That's got to be part of the calculation
05:49 that we make in any procurement decision.
05:52 And of course, we're dealing with public funds.
05:54 But there's a win-win if we get more Scottish produce
05:57 into our public sector, into our hospitals,
05:59 into our schools.
06:01 Good morning, First Minister.
06:02 It feels really hard going running a business at the moment,
06:06 not just because of rising costs
06:09 and the impact on your profitability,
06:11 but it feels hard going due to a number of government policies.
06:16 And there's people across sectors
06:19 who feel that some policies are anti-business.
06:24 Can you give us assurance that you will,
06:26 through the New Deal for Business and other areas,
06:29 look at facilitating rural business growth
06:32 and just making it easier to grow our businesses
06:34 in the rural economy?
06:36 So nobody underestimates the difficulties and challenges.
06:39 And I'm credible on you.
06:40 You should all be commended for the resilience
06:42 that your businesses have shown
06:44 throughout that really difficult period.
06:45 I've never known a period like it.
06:47 First of all, thank you for coming here today.
06:49 It's more than the younger Secretary of State
06:50 for Scotland managed yesterday.
06:52 He addressed us from home.
06:53 From Ballater to Berlin,
06:55 there has been farmers out on the streets,
06:59 protesting, bringing capital cities to a standstill.
07:03 Much of that, the thread of consistency,
07:05 has been around the green agenda.
07:10 The Bute House agreement was described in this room yesterday
07:13 as an absolute disaster.
07:15 Fergus Ewing described it as the green tail
07:18 wagging the big yellow dog.
07:20 If you're unwilling to scrap the Bute House agreement,
07:22 would you at least undertake to review it?
07:25 Even if the Greens were not in government,
07:28 we would still have broadly inclined change targets.
07:31 And it wasn't the Greens that simply voted
07:33 for the broadly inclined change targets.
07:34 Every single political party,
07:36 including the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats,
07:39 all voted unanimously for that 2045 NECO target.
07:44 They are quite literally statutory targets.
07:47 If we don't meet those statutory targets,
07:49 we end up getting taken to court,
07:51 and we'd probably lose.
07:52 What has been done with the £61 million
07:55 was that funding was not taken from farmers' pockets.
07:58 It was not taken from any current schemes.
08:00 And I'd also point out that it's deferred funding.
08:04 It was not stolen.
08:05 That £61 million is ring-fenced funding.
08:08 Because it is ring-fenced,
08:10 it means it must be returned to the portfolio.
08:13 And in that sense, we're in a more fortunate position
08:15 in relation to the rural affairs portfolio
08:18 than other parts of government where that is not the case.
08:20 But the £46 million will be returned to the portfolio,
08:24 and we cannot be any clearer than that.
08:26 The next generation are so, so important.
08:29 We need to have an industry that's going to be vibrant
08:31 and profitable to get the encouragement
08:33 to get the next generation involved.
08:34 So we have to get this right.
08:35 Ladies and gentlemen,
08:37 it's been a tremendous session this morning.
08:38 I want to all join with me and give a big vote of thanks
08:41 to our First Minister for Scotland, Hamza Yousaf,
08:44 and Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Islands,
08:47 Mairi Gougeon.
08:47 Thank you very much.
08:48 (audience applauding)
08:51 (upbeat music)
08:57 (upbeat music)
09:00 [MUSIC]
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