Batters calls for a level playing field over trade negotiations

Despite moving to an online platform this year, the Cerealslive event was used as a platform to call for greater reassurances and transparency on the production methods and standards of imported grains and oilseeds.

Speaking at a webinar which was also addressed by recently appointed Defra farm minister, Victoria Prentis, English NFU president Minette Batters highlighted the effect which a lack of common standards had had on the oilseed rape sector.

She said that the area of the crop had crashed in

England following the banning of neonicotinoid seed dressings, without which growers were virtually powerless to combat the ravages of cabbage stem flea beetle.

However, she revealed that while UK growers had been severely handicapped by the ban, much of the imported oilseed rape and products derived from it was grown from neonicotinoid-treated crops.

“Many farmers have been struggling to grow key crops since the ban of products like neonicotinoids and chlorothalonil, and now face a double whammy of a trade policy that allows food into the UK which has been produced using the very products that are now illegal here,” said Batters.

She said that that while UK grain producers were held to account by both regulatory standards and farm assurance standards, there was a significant lack of information about the standards to which imported crops were produced to – a situation which would only worsen under new trade deals if the UK government’s reassurances weren’t written into legislation.

“As we embark on new trading opportunities around the world, it is essential that a level playing field is established,” she sdaid.