President on opportunities and challenges for agriculture

NFU Cymru president John Davies has produced a special video message for this week’s virtual Royal Welsh Show, assessing the current and future opportunities and challenges for Welsh agriculture.

While Covid-19 has meant that the Royal Welsh Show will only run in an online capacity this year, Mr Davies has delivered his own digital message to members and prospective virtual showgoers, discussing how the post-Brexit and post-coronavirus landscape will affect Welsh farming.

Acknowledging that things were going to be “slightly different” this year for “the best show in the world”, Mr Davies wished RWS president Harry Fetherstonhaugh and the Clwyd team all of the best.

He added: “We look forward to it being a proper show next year where we can meet all our friends once again.”

Mr Davies said the coronavirus pandemic had presented many challenges for Welsh farming, but that he was proud of the way the industry had united to tackle those challenges.

“I thank you, our members, for ensuring the nation continues to be fed safe, healthy food. That has been a challenge early on in the crisis, particularly in the dairy and beef sectors. Thankfully we’re working through that and together we’re promoting what we produce.”

Mr Davies also thanked the one million people who had signed the NFU’s food standards petition, saying the volume of signatures “showed the strength of feeling across the country when it comes to the UK’s high standards of animal welfare and environmental protection and the public do not want to see these standards undermined by products of inferior quality from other parts of the world”.

He stressed the importance of getting future trade agreements in place that allow the industry to prosper.

“We’re pleased to be a part of the new Trade and Agriculture Commission and obviously there is a lot of work to be done. It’s absolutely vital that all future trade deals have proper parliamentary scrutiny,” he said.

Mr Davies stated that the Welsh Government’s Sustainable Farming and Our Land proposals needed to “mesh” with the Sustainable Brand Values programme to ensure Wales’s credentials as one of the most climatefriendly food producers in the world are rightly recognised.

He added: “We’ve got a great story to tell here in Wales. We’ve got a fantastic shop window to show that in the Royal Welsh Show over the next few days, and the next few years going forward.

“It’s vitally important that people know what we produce and how we produce it.”

Mr Davies underlined that bovine TB still represented a significant challenge to Welsh farmers and that thousands of cows were still being culled because of this disease.

“It’s really important that we get this policy right going forward and it’s crucial that we address this disease across all its vectors. We need to look across the world to see where methods have been successful and we need to use the best practice.”

The Royal Welsh Show coincides with Farm Safety Week and Mr Davies used his speech as an opportunity to underline that all farmers need to put safety top of their priorities.

He said: “This is something that we should be thinking of first and foremost at the start of every day.

“I really plead with you all to think of this, particularly over the coming harvest season. Think safe and think carefully.”