Chamber and committees

I think I have aboot 30 seconds before I close.

I hear what Karen Adam is saying about our prized seafood industry, which has been hit with a 50 per cent increase in the cost of packaging items that are sent to the EU. I know from a recent visit to a seafood company in Galloway that the new export health certificates are costing the salmon sector alone approximately £1.3 million a year.

I welcome the support that the Scottish Government is providing to our food and drink sector. I thank the south of Scotland producers for all their hard work, and I hope that Scotland will take its rightful place in the European Union to protect and enhance our food and drink sector.

Evidence tells us that overdoses occur when people take a combination of substances, including benzodiazepines or blue or street benzos, which account for 73 per cent of overdoses. Such incidents are particularly prevalent in rural areas such as Dumfries and Galloway. There is a reversal agent for benzodiazepines called flumazenil, which I used when I worked in a perioperative department as a registered nurse. Will the minister provide an update on the research that is under way on the reversal agent, bearing in mind that it would only be part of a multipronged approach to preventing deaths?

I am not sure whether you have mentioned the word “Brexit” yet, but I wonder whether you will address how it has failed our farmers across the UK and Scotland.

I welcome the opportunity to speak in the debate on valuing Scotland’s world-class food and drink sector, particularly because it is taking place during Scottish food and drink fortnight. Scotland’s food and drink sector is one of the key drivers of our economy. We are fortunate, particularly in my South Scotland region, to have some of the most amazing and delicious products and pure natural resources to be found anywhere in the world.

I know that it has been said already, but it is worth repeating that, with an annual turnover of £15 billion and overseas export sales of more than £6 billion, which represents nearly a third of all UK food exports, the food and drink industry is a major contributor to Scotland’s economy.

There are more than 17,000 food and drink businesses, which employ around 129,000 people, many of whom are in remote and economically fragile rural and island communities, such as communities in Dumfries and Galloway. Exports of Scottish food and drink were valued at a record £8.1 billion in 2022. That is up £1.9 billion, which is 30.6 per cent, compared with 2021. However, despite the fantastic efforts of our food and drink producers, it is clear that Brexit continues to pose huge challenges to Scotland’s food and drink industry due to the loss of free trade and the imposition of new obstacles to the movement of goods. Indeed, the Ethical Dairy, which is a producer in Galloway, stopped sending goods to Europe and Ireland altogether because of Brexit bureaucracy. It was just going to cost too much. No matter how innovative the industry is or how wonderful our produce is, if we cannot get that produce to markets, the sector will face challenges.

From attending the majority of the agricultural shows over the summer—including at Stranraer, Wigtown, Dumfries and Kelso—it is clear that numerous challenges are impacting the sector, and removal from the EU single market plays a big part in that. The food and drink sector has borne the brunt, particularly through the loss of freedom of movement of people and free trade. Now, with clear evidence of Brexit causing food bills to rocket, we are all affected. The Opposition likes to point out that many factors influence food inflation, but other countries and citizens do not have to contend with Brexit. It is really important that we speak about that.

The Scottish Government is doing all that it can within its resources and powers to help the sector. Supporting our local food businesses provides important markets for local producers. The Scottish Government has provided £17.5 million to businesses and groups in the food and drink sector, including the oyster festival in Stranraer. I am glad that Colin Smyth mentioned that, as I will be goin there masel this Saturday. The oyster festival in Stranraer has received £15,000 of combined funding from the Scottish Government and Dumfries and Galloway Council. Again, I look forward to oysters in Stranraer this weekend. It is worth pointing out that Loch Ryan is home to Scotland’s only native oyster beds. I thank Stranraer Development Trust for all its efforts in organising the oyster festival, which is helping to shine a light on the toon that I was born in and grew up in.

Scotland’s ambitious 10-year collaborative food and drink recovery plan targets strong growth against Brexit impacts. “Sustaining Scotland. Supplying the World. A strategy for Scotland’s food and drink industry” aims to mitigate the damage inflicted by the Covid pandemic and Brexit. The strategy aims to support the sector to grow faster than similarly sized competitors, such as those in Ireland and Norway. The Scotland Food & Drink partnership projects that it could support a 25 per cent increase in turnover for the sector by 2028, from a projected £16 billion to £20 billion. The actions include restoring promotional activity to pre-pandemic levels to reach new markets, and recruiting and retaining a highly skilled workforce to adapt and tackle skills shortages in the sector. That will support rural small businesses, such as businesses across Dumfries and Galloway and the Borders.

Scotland’s food and drink sector lost many of the benefits that it once had in trading with the EU, and that makes me crabbit. Although the full economic consequences of Brexit are yet to be realised, businesses now face additional expense when trading, and some food producers have found that their goods can no longer be exported to the EU. Brexit also hampers domestic production, with labour shortages caused by the loss of freedom of movement.

Pre-Brexit, Scottish producers sold 20,000 tonnes of seed potatoes to EU customers each year. The Windsor framework allows seed potatoes to go to Northern Ireland, but the EU market is still closed to Scottish seed potatoes. That is 20,000 tonnes.

Many of Scotland’s food industries are still suffering from lower imports and exports to the EU, including a 38 per cent fall in fruit and vegetable exports between 2019 and 2022. The Opposition might go on aboot how Brexit disnae matter. It absolutely does matter, and we have to keep reiterating that, because the sooner we are back in the EU as an independent country, the better. Scottish firms are trying to export to Europe, but they face significant additional costs and bureaucracy at a time when their margins are already being squeezed.

When the UK Government published the Peter Hendy review, it committed to provide funding to the Scottish Government to improve the safety and efficiency of the A75. I agree that we need those upgrades urgently, but will the minister indicate whether the UK Government has provided any information on how much funding will be provided and when it will be received?

To ask the First Minister whether he will provide an update on the steps that are being taken to reduce drug deaths in Scotland. (S6F-02343)

The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 is over 50 years old. It is not fit for purpose and it must be reviewed urgently.

The Home Affairs Committee recently published a report that called for a review of drug classification and a new health-led approach to tackling drugs, with a trial of safe consumption rooms. Can the First Minister provide an update on what engagement the Scottish Government has had with the United Kingdom Government regarding the urgent need to reform the draconian Misuse of Drugs Act 1971?

I was pleased that the minister accepted my invitation to visit the Penpont community micro-hydro scheme in Dumfries and Galloway during recess. It is clear that such schemes are crucial in supporting our renewable energy output and providing green power at a local level. They are also crucial in our fight against the climate emergency. However, the UK Government seems unwilling to adopt those schemes to the national grid. Will the minister confirm that an independent Scotland will have a focus on those schemes, providing low-cost power through a national grid of our own?

Can the minister provide an update on the steps that are being taken within the powers currently available to the Scottish Government to support tourism businesses that have reported staff shortages due to the loss of freedom of movement?

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the United Kingdom Government regarding ensuring access to the national grid for community energy schemes in Scotland. (S6O-02462)