Affordability must be at the top of the list

When an old university friend came on the phone a few months back telling me he was being transferred from his land agent offices south of the Forth to work in their Perth office and asking if I knew of anywhere he could rent a room, it didn’t take me long to suggest he should come and be a lodger in my little cottage.

Firstly it was just the excuse I was needing to sort out my spare room, but mostly I knew that the company would be great – not to mention the income from his rent.

We are now a few weeks in and getting on brilliantly. The company is good and the conversation is certainly better than what I was getting from the dog!

One of the nicest things is having a bit more food about the place, especially in the fridge, although this nearly got off to bad start.

On inspection of some of his food, I was disheartened to not only see he shopped at one of the two dreaded German discounters, but more worryingly a lot of the meat bought from said store was not British.

On asking my new roomie the theory behind his buying decisions, he came up with more valid points than I was expecting, the main being price but also a justified confusion that the specific pack of pulled ham he had bought had a saltire on the label and some fake McTavish name strewn across it with the tiniest of writing saying packaged in the UK from EU sourced pork.

This incident with my new lodger may seem trivial in the grand scheme of things, but I believe it highlights some real issues that need to be addressed across our industry – especially as we seem to be hurtling head-first into a hard and pretty much unknown Brexit.

The issue with sourcing and labelling continues to be a strain on our hard-working producers, and the fact that these (predominantly discount) retailers are still allowed to stock such misleading products as the one my friend bought is in my eyes a crime and something they should not be getting away with.

Leaving labelling aside, it’s a fact that most non-British fresh foods – especially meat – continue to be the cheapest option for many households, particularly those feeding families on an increasingly tight budget. This is something that we need to tackle.

How can we produce a product that is affordable for the average consumer whilst also giving ourselves a sufficient return?

Hardcore Brexiteers would tell you that once we’re out all imports will be heavily restricted so retailers and subsequently consumers will be forced to buy British.

Of course this is extremely unlikely and the reality could be that the doors are open for retailers to buy even cheaper from outside the EU, cue chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-reared beef.

So as an industry we must play a bigger role in not only educating those who consume our end product but also increasing pressure on both policy makers and most importantly retailers, reiterating that the UK consumer must have affordable, high-quality British produce pride of place on their shelves whilst returning hard-working farmers a fair price.

The issue with sourcing and labelling continues to be a strain on our hardworking producers ...

UK retailers must be encouraged to give high-quality British produce pride of place on their shelves.