Farmers are the working from home experts

Farmers in Australia nailed it this week. “We’re the experts at working from home,” stated their advert. “Don’t panic”.

A nationwide campaign was launched by Australia’s National Farmers Federation to reassure consumers about food security during the turmoil of the global crisis, and ask them to buy only what they need.

It’s subtle, solid and rightly positions the agricultural industry at the heart of a national effort to cope with one of the most immediate ramifications of Covid-19.

And while the UK doesn’t come close to the level of self-sufficiency enjoyed Down Under, farmers and food businesses here are rapidly gearing up and mobilising to ensure the supply chain remains productive, efficient and as uninterrupted as possible in the months ahead.

They will need all the help they can get.

All sectors are under pressure, whether it’s completing the field work as quickly as possible while the good weather holds; dealing with the demands of lambing and calving while coping with the additional pressure of having children at home; or processing and delivering potatoes, grain and other commodities to meet unprecedented demand.

In less terrifying times industry leaders would have been screaming about this week’s price crash in the lamb market or the uncertainty over labour availability when it comes round to harvesting crops, but instead heads are down and searching for ways of ensuring food producers get deliveries of vital inputs such as diesel, fertiliser, agrochemicals, animal medicines and feed, and farm equipment continues to be maintained and repaired.

The public are on board and ready to chip in as best they can, with reports of up to 10,000 responses in just a week to appeals for labour across the UK.

However, with competition rules relaxed, supermarkets assuming ever more control of supply and distribution chains, and export markets shaky, producers and government need to be alert to profiteering.

A complete review of the UK’s “just-in-time” approach to grocery supplies will undoubtedly be in the pipeline, and once the most acute pressure subsides we will see a very different approach to food production.

In the meantime, it might help calm the panic if consumers here received the same message as Australians: Farmers have your back.