Is the world our oyster?

THE level of success reached by New Zealand farmers—whose dairy products accounts for nearly 30% of the world market, despite producing less than 3% of the world’s milk—was cited by International Trade Secretary Liz Truss last week as something to which British farmers should aspire. She told the NFU Live conference that there’s ‘no reason why we cannot match this’ as she announced a new ‘Open Doors’ campaign, which will see farmers ‘at the tip of our spear driving into new markets’ —particularly the burgeoning middle classes of Asia. ‘We have been held back for nearly 50 years by an antiinnovation approach,’ she said, a sentiment echoed by Boris Johnson at the event. ‘By the end of this decade, 66% of the world’s middleclass consumers are expected to be found in Asia. And they are hungry.’ In 2019, Britain exported nearly £24 billion worth of food and drink, with exports to non-eu nations growing more than three times as much (pro rata) as those to the EU, but there is progress to be made. ‘We know that exporting supports higher pay and more productive jobs, but, at the moment, only one in five of our food manufacturers export,’ she explained. To this end, the Government, working with the NFU, the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board and the Food and Drink Federation, will provide mentoring, masterclasses in export and funding—last year, UK Export Finance invested £4.2 billion in British producers. Miss Truss also expressed a hope that tariffs can be cut on products, such as beef and Scottish whisky, and that regional produce, including Melton Mowbray pies and Cornish dairy, can flourish. Rodda’s clotted cream is already ‘sold from Japan to Australia, and Welsh lamb… across the Gulf in Qatar and the UAE’. However, British fishermen are currently unable to export their shellfish catches worth £393 million to the EU. This was highlighted by Sir Keir Starmer, who spoke of the public’s ‘anger and frustration’ over the Government’s handling of the EU trade deal and the fact that it’s currently ‘harder and more expensive to export to our largest market’. ‘The EU is acting unreasonably,’ said Miss Truss, promising that Defra is working on it.