When it comes to supermarket shelves, farmers are only visible during shortages

GRASS seed has just gone in and third cut clamped, all in good weather. The cows are doing 18 litres on 2kg of meal and grass with no silage yet, but I am hoping for a warm September to keep the grass ticking over. Fertiliser has gone out in the first week, so everything seems to be going to plan, other than paying for it. It seems everything is going up in price, that is except the milk price.

The news and papers are full of the shortage of lorry drivers. People are distraught at not having their Mcdonald’s milkshake or their Nando’s chicken, but noone is going short of good food – yet! Why are people surprised about this? Yes, Brexit has played a part in this, along with the effect of the pandemic, but the average age of a driver is 57 years old, they frequently work long, unpredictable and antisocial hours, often doing weekends and through the night. Does all this sound familiar?

Drivers, who often pay to get their HGV licence, have also been slipping down the wage ladder, under pressure from powerful customers, such as supermarkets, who drive down costs. In 2010, the median HGV driver in the UK earned 51% more per hour than the median supermarket cashier. By 2020, that premium had been cut to 27%. Many drivers quit in their thirties. The hours make it hard to raise children and the pay isn’t enough to support a partner staying at home. These are similar to the farming industry. When it comes to the supermarket shelf, farmers, along with lorry drivers and others in the ‘just in time’ supply chain, become visible only in times of shortage. Should it be like this? Of course, the law of supply and demand is established, however what this pandemic has shown us is how fragile this supply chain is. Shareholders seem to look only on short-term profits rather than long-term sustainability. They put cost before value, greed before fairness.

Waitrose is offering HGV drivers up to £53,780 a year. The average UK economist earns £45,390. At long last and quite rightly, the market sees more value in a lorry driver rather than in an economist. How much longer will it take for the market to recognise that even the primary food producer should be valued more than an economist?

Many in farming, along with driving, have had years of price/wage suppression, many have quit, and fewer young people are keen to start because it is not seen as a job of high social status, and yet the country can’t do without us, which is, in a way, the highest status of all.