Brexit warning on future of sheep industry

Region reliant on sector that ‘needs’ free EU trade

YORKSHIRE’S RURAL way of life stands to suffer if the region’s crucial sheep industry is not afforded frictionless trade with Europe, according to farm union leader Minette Batters.

Ahead of a trip to Skipton today, the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) president said that a failure to broker a free trade deal with the EU ahead of Britain’s exit from the trading bloc next March would likely lead to high tariffs being imposed on imports of British lamb.

If sold at added cost British lamb becomes a less attractive proposition then the effects will filter down to farm businesses, Ms Batters said.

According to the latest figures, sheep meat exports to the EU were worth £302m in 2015, representing 95 per cent of all British sheep meat exports.

The NFU boss, who will unveil a new livestock sales complex at Skipton’s Craven Cattle Mart during her visit to the region, said that as this year’s lamb sales will be the last before Brexit it “brings into sharp focus the importance of securing a favourable trade deal with the EU”.

Some 30 per cent of England’s sheep are in Yorkshire and the North-East, making sheep production vital to the region’s rural economy.

Speaking to The Yorkshire Post, Ms Batters said: “Everybody is very concerned about the uncertainty because the sheep sector is potentially the most impacted by a ‘no deal’.

“We export 40 per cent of our lamb into the EU and if we didn’t have access to that market where is that 40 per cent of production going to go?

“British lamb would be facing a 51 per cent tariff in a no-deal situation which would push us out of the marketplace.

“If we don’t have a deal with the EU and we open our doors to the rest of the world and bring in food of lower standards, this ultimately means we can’t compete.”

Asked about the effects this would have on Yorkshire’s farming industry, Ms Batters explained: “Many people’s businesses are limited by the land they are farming. In Yorkshire there is a lot of grass and you can’t do anything else there.

“If your business is constrained by growing grass there isn’t another option for a lot of farmers unless they have beef and sheep.”

The county is home to more than 2m sheep and the Yorkshire Dales is England’s largest sheepproducing area.

Explaining just what is at stake from the outcome of trade talks, Ms Batters said: “It’s about a way of life that underpins the rural economy; not just about food production, it’s about our culture, our heritage, farming families across the generations.”

She added: “With so much at stake, the UK Government must adopt a trade policy which prioritises tariff-free, frictionless access to the European marketplace.

“This is crucial to underpin market stability, vital not just for farmers but the many wider supply chain businesses that depend on a thriving sheep sector.”

HOW appropriate it is for Bernard Ingham to use the word “fraudulent” so much in his condemnation of the Remainers and the EU (The Yorkshire Post, May 16). The Brexiteers, of course, are open and honest?

Leaving aside the claims on Boris’s bus, it is strange how the Vote Leave organisations are being investigated for breaching the election spending limits by considerable margins. Jacob Rees-Mogg, Boris Johnson and company opposed the reformation of the House of Lords. How their tone has changed now the Lords play their role as a brake on a potentially impetuous Commons. Sir Bernard squeals “they resort to the mechanics of Parliament by endlessly amending legislation (14 amendments in the Lords so far)”.

Isn’t that how a democracy works? Of course the Brexiteers have thought out all the steps required to leave the EU. Or have they? The Irish Border question indicates just how clueless they are. Neither Northern Ireland nor the Republic want the frontier to return and the North will not accept a border between them and the mainland. Someone is caught on the horns of a dilemma.

THE article by Bernard Ingham

(The Yorkshire Post, May 16) is the best synopsis of the pro and anti arguments on membership of the European Union I have seen. Congratulations for a masterly piece of journalism.

JOHN Turley (The Yorkshire Post, May 15) is, as usual, incorrect when he states that I agree that the writing on the red bus during the EU referendum was misleading. There was nothing whatsoever misleading about this example of how we could spend our own money much better than giving it to the EU for nothing in return. Further examples could have been “let’s spend it on defence instead” or “let’s spend it on fixing our roads”, all of which are much better options than throwing it into the EU’s bottomless pit!

WHY can’t your Brexit correspondents be more polite, and also respectful of people who hold opposing views?

They’re becoming increasingly belligerent – a disrespect picked up from Westminster where Parliamentarians should be doing more to work together in the national interest to find a way forward.