Buy locally... and agree EU free trade deal

I REFER to the letter ( The Yorkshire Post, October 24) from the vice chairman of Ryedale District Council advocating that we should shop local and buy British to help our farmers.

I agree. What is disappointing is that, as we leave the EU public procurement policy constraints, whereby we have to tender for all public contracts over approximately £ 120,000 for example for the purchase of food for our schools, hospitals, prisons and all public institutions, we are tying ourselves to another.

Under the provisions of the Trade Bill currently before Parliament, the Government is signing us up to the Agreement on Public Procurement ( GPA) with virtually the same threshold for tendering, thereby stymieing opportunities for local farmers.

Import substitution would be a great way forward to the benefit of our local cheese producers in Yorkshire such as Shepherds Purse Cheese, replacing Roquefort and Feta with Mrs Bell’s Blue and Yorkshire Fettle. I applaud the work of Deliciously Yorkshire who do so much to market and raise awareness of these foodstuffs.

As regards increasing our exports to non- EU countries, the new free trade deal with Japan has been heralded for providing such opportunities for food such as cheese. Sadly, this only applies where the EU has not exhausted its own quota and we can apply for what is left over.

So, while there is no better way to support our farmers than to buy local, there are still many challenges ahead stemming from the loss of our closest geographic market of 446 million consumers.

The best outcome in the next two months is for the Government to agree a free trade deal with the EU and for Westminster to accept there must be equivalent standards for imported foods as for that produced here.