What do you hope to achieve during your period in office?

The food sector plays a key part in our economy, and farmers and growers play a crucial role in managing the land. One of my main objectives will be to stand up for farmers by reducing red tape. Overall, I want to support and develop British farming and encourage sustainable food production.

What are your key objectives for horticulture?

I want to make full use of the proposals from the Fruit and Vegetable Task Force to claw back some of our domestic market.

Are you concerned about securing food supplies in the future in view of the fact that many foreign suppliers no longer consider the UK to be a profitable market?

I am principally concerned at ensuring that our consumers can access a full range of fruit and vegetables and the best way to do that is to help our domestic industry to compete.

Can you tell us the latest on the grocery adjudicator? Do you think it is necessary to help ease tensions between supermarkets and suppliers?

The government is creating the Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA) to enforce the Groceries Code of Practice. A draft bill will be published soon. The Competition Commission found that all large grocery retailers have extensive buyer power in relation to at least some of their suppliers and this allowed them to transfer “excessive risks or unexpected costs” to some of their suppliers.

What do you make of Sainsbury’s chief executive Justin King’s address to the Food Supply Network when he said the government is not prioritising food and a skills gap is opening up?

This is definitely a priority for this government. Having spent some of my earlier life producing farming training programmes in farming and horticulture, I want to ensure we have a food industry that remains strong and viable through a skilled workforce. We are working with the food industry to develop a skills action plan for the manufacturing and processing part of the food chain.

There were some suggestions you allowed more cuts than many other departments in the Spending Review and DEFRA will be left short in the next few years. How would you respond to those criticisms?

The priority for the government is helping to get the economy back on track. All departments have had to make tough decisions about their budgets while ensuring delivery of their key priorities. We have come to a fair settlement that allows us to balance the need for DEFRA to play its part in tackling the deficit against our commitment to protect frontline services, preserve the effectiveness of the department’s key priority programmes and handle emergencies effectively. It means we will be able to still focus on our priorities, including support for British farmers and encouraging sustainable food production.

DEFRA will have just over £2.8 billion to spend in 2011-12, as well as over a further £2bn under the Single Payment Scheme for UK farmers.

Realistically, how much money do you have to fund horticultural research or do you now see that as the domain of private companies if you are to plug the government’s funding gap?

DEFRA alone spends £29 million on farming and food research, which includes horticulture research, to ensure we have a sustainable and competitive industry. A far greater sum is spent across government. This budget does not include animal health and welfare.

Through the new Sustainable Agriculture and Food Innovation Platform, we are working with industry to stimulate the development of new technologies that will increase food productivity while decreasing the environmental impact of the food and farming industries. The platform plans to invest up to £90m of government funding in industry-led projects over the next five years.

As well as working on collaborative research projects, we have had advice from the industry-led Fruit and Vegetables Task Force to help inform priorities on research and development to increase the UK’s self-sufficiency in indigenous fruit and vegetables.

What are your thoughts on the seasonal supply of labour from Europe? Do you think it is possible to get more British people back into fresh produce?

It is likely that we will continue to need a migrant workforce to meet seasonal labour needs in the future. However, we have made very clear that immigration should not be the only means of filling labour shortages and that more needs to be done to fill vacancies from UK residents.We are committed to reviewing the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme before it expires.

In particular, industry needs to consider how working conditions and career prospects can be made more attractive in order to encourage resident workers to take up work in agriculture and horticulture.

What do you make of the situation with producer organisations? Are UK POs misinterpreting European guidelines or is the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) to blame for the suspension of payments?

Effective producer organisations are important in sustainably increasing the amount of fruit and vegetables produced in the UK.

Following a series of EU audits, the UK is facing significant levels of disallowance that resulted in a temporary halting of payments in December. A number of other EU member states have also experienced difficulties, so we are addressing these problems both here and in Europe, and I’ve asked a working group made of industry and government to clarify guidance for the sector, after which the RPA will review the POs. This review must be in the best interests of the UK taxpayer and of the industry itself so that we can restore confidence and certainty in the scheme.

What is next for the Fruit and Vegetable Task Force?

I chaired the final meeting of the Fruit and Vegetable Task Force in October. During the meeting, an action plan was agreed to make domestic fruit and vegetables more competitive on grounds of cost, availability and quality. The task force also set an aim over five years to increase indigenous fruit and vegetable self-sufficiency.

Progress of the action plan is being monitored by my officials, who are working with industry and other departments. In April, the sub-group chairs - production, supply chain and consumption - plan to meet to discuss progress.

Do you have any solid plans over how much you aim to increase production and by what point?

The Fruit and Vegetable Task Force has set an aim of over five years to reverse the decline in indigenous vegetable self-sufficiency to return it to 73 per cent and continuing the growth of self-sufficiency in indigenous fruit, to achieve 50 per cent.

We are working hard to support British farming and encourage sustainable foodproduction. It’s important that growers, the supply chain, retailers and wholesalers work together to make this happen - and the task force’s action plan will support us in getting there.