‘Joined-up thinking needed to embrace changes in farming’
PRESIDENT of the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers (CAAV) wants more joined-up thinking as farmers embrace changes brought about by Brexit.
Andrew Thomas, director of south Wales’ Herbert R Thomas, says Brexit has accelerated the process of farmers becoming price makers rather than price takers.
He says the pandemic has also prompted people to shop locally, to question the provenance of food and consider climate emission implications.
Herbert R Thomas, based in Cowbridge, was founded by Mr Thomas’ grandfather nearly a century ago in the building where it sits today.
He is only the fifth Welsh CAAV president in 110 years, a position he says is an honour and an opportunity to give back.
Mr Thomas: “The accelerator is, without a doubt, the fact that we’ve left Europe. Farmers are well aware from the transition plan in England, for instance, that things are going to change.
“The pandemic has also probably been an accelerator, because people have had to shop locally. Actually, they have also gone for local provenance returning to high street and online butchers and I think, whilst people will go to supermarkets for a general shop, they have seen and enjoyed the local provenance of food.
“I think there is this general feeling of a change in their desire to look at food from a local perspective and, actually, in terms of miles travelled.”
Mr Thomas feels this has prompted farmers within reach of high earning centres of population to diversify, so that they become price makers rather than takers. He reels off a number of farm shops, restaurants, and a milk hut within a short reach of his Cowbridge office in the Vale of Glamorgan that have suddenly begun to sell directly to the consumer.
His big fear is that a lack of joined-up thinking on the part of Welsh Government and local authorities will stifle this progress.
He stressed that the CAAV is not a lobbying organisation. He said: “We advise Government of the likely outcomes of their policies and that’s apolitical.
“I have my personal views. I would love to see a good quality local abattoir alongside a new livestock market facility in south Wales to help us meet increasing demand and I think there will be increasing demand.
“If you look at the big picture, veganism and vegetarianism are growing, so meat is likely to become a high end value product and therefore it’s about provenance
“If we are going to be encouraged to farm more sustainably, then we are going to be custodians of the countryside, land managers, until perhaps food is really badly needed and then things might change.
“But that’s what we’re being told. Public money for public goods, rewarding farmers for the provision of public goods.”
On the outlook for the agricultural sector Mr Thomas said: “I think in the main farmers will rise to the challenge, although I think it’s going to be a much bigger challenge for lowland farmers.”