The Examiner spoke to Treasury Minister Dr Alex Allinson about how the Budget will affect agriculture on the island.

In the Budget he announced £2.03 million of extra revenue for DEFA and £2 million support for the meat plant and the AgriEnvironment Scheme.

All this is welcome but, given that we are on the verge of losing our wheat growing sector altogether, we wanted to know if there would be any money available to put in place a suggested plan to build a new, smaller and more efficient mill, or to help wheat growers with export costs.

Dr Allinson said: ‘There’s a whole range of issues there, first of all in terms of food security.

‘DEFA are bringing to the Council of Ministers a food security strategy, to see exactly what we need for our island, what those key priorities are, both in terms of infrastructure but also support for the various sectors.

‘Certainly we’ll be looking at the Laxey Glen Flour Mill, how that operates and how that supports the agricultural sector in terms of wheat growers.

‘We have obviously been through a very volatile period where prices increased quite dramatically, where costs increased quite dramatically, where both of them are beginning to settle down.

‘In terms of export costs from the Isle of Man that could be seen by some people as a barrier to export and, with the loss of the Ramsey Bakery a lot of people have been producing far more than we can consume on the Isle of Man in terms of flour and wheat, so we need to look at whether we reschedule their business model, because sometimes the export market isn’t quite there for the products that are grown on the Isle of Man.

‘What we do have, through the Department for Enterprise and the Business Agency, is a way of looking far more at export markets and seeing how we can actually look at exporting more, particularly to the UK and further afield.

‘Some parts of the island economy have been very successful at that in the past, such as the Creamery, and IoM Meats have been trying to expand their exports.

‘Certainly I know that the flour mill are looking to export more but there are some issues there that need to be dealt with so we will be working with the providers of the infrastructure such as Laxey Glen Mills and the meat plant and also the way that they support the agricultural sector.’

We also wanted to know whether we will see much more of a vision to do with food security?

Dr Allinson said: ‘Absolutely but, again, I think the agricultural sector have been through a battering. They’ve seen their costs rise significantly at a time of dents in consumer confidence as well and people having less money available in their pockets to spend.

‘I think that’s been a real issue but I know that DEFA have got ongoing communication with various aspects of the sector, including the wheat growers, to try to make sure that we respond in an appropriate way.’