A wish list for the genie!

By James Porter ‘I wish for retailers to commit to sustainable contracts for soft fruit. It already happens with potatoes and veg, so they can’t say it can’t be done’

THESE are strange days indeed, with the economy on the brink of recession or worse, politicians discredited and disgraced, crazy economic plans, war in Europe, populism, lies and liars celebrated on social media.

Things that once seemed set in stone, are no longer so. Nothing is ever so bad that it cannot get worse, so it would be dangerous to assume that this is as bad as it gets.

Yet our country has been in deeper holes and found a way to climb out. If I found a lamp and I rubbed it on my sleeve, and if a genie popped out and granted me three wishes, what would I wish for to take farming onto solid ground?

What’s the first thing anyone finding a lamp wishes for, is it gold, or is it love? Your pragmatic correspondent has already been fortunate in love ... so I’m going with the gold.

I wish for more capital grants to promote efficiency and growth in produce. I have just returned from the Netherlands, where all our strawberry plants are propagated.

It’s not common knowledge, but government-backed, interest-free loans made a huge contribution to their incredibly advanced glasshouse production and processing facilities. Tiny Netherlands is the second largest exporter of food in the world as a result.

The lesson for me was that money invested in production of fruit and veg will be invested, not spent, with the reward for government and society a secure, resilient and relatively cheap supply of healthy food, with the potential for export in time.

Water and climate might be a threat on a global level, but not here. It’s not a short-term project, but Scotland could grow so much more fresh produce than it does if it was given proper investment and incentive to do so.

The next wish is easy. We have a forest of reports and recommendations from a dozen groups and committees on the future of Scottish agricultural policy – enough to fill a library. Nothing is perfect and something is better than nothing.

So, I wish for the Scottish government to commit to a plan for Scottish agriculture. The proposals from Messrs Thomson, Moxey and Hall back in July, 2021, are very sensible and widely respected. Let’s go with that for starters and we can adjust it as we go along.

The plan won’t be the biggest issue in any case, it will be how much funding there is to go with the plan and if I were a betting man, I would guess not a lot.

My third wish is quite specific to soft fruit, but I found the lamp so I reckon I can have one wish for my own area of specialisation.

I wish for retailers to commit to sustainable contracts for soft fruit. It already happens with potatoes and veg, so they can’t say it can’t be done.

Soft fruit is the last wild frontier of produce, a lawless area of the marketplace in desperate need of some stability. Meaningful contracts, at fair prices which commit to whole crops, can supply that.

I envisage demand reducing significantly next season for two reasons – cost of living and cost of production driving big price rises. The risks are too great for farmers to commit to growing crops without reassurance they can sell their crops at a profit.

So, if they know what retailers will commit to, they can reduce production accordingly and anything grown out if contract is at own risk.

Look, I know we are on wish four and the genie only traditionally allows three – but I’m making the rules here. It’s my lamp!

I wish for the agricultural minimum wage to be the same as it is in England next year. The Scottish Government is pushing for the Living Wage Foundation minimum rate of pay of £10.90, which in my view is misguided and will be counter-productive.

How can we compete with English growers paying £10.32 next year, if we are paying £10.90? If the Agricultural Wages Board followed Scottish Government guidance, it would mean the end of horticulture (and employment in horticulture) in Scotland overnight.

Chance would be a fine thing, but we might as well finish with a plea for sanity. I think we have all seen enough now to know that Brexit has been a mad experiment, an abject failure, a malignant cancer poisoning the bodies both politic and economic in Northern Ireland, in particular, and with our largest market in the EU in general.

Ex-governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, last week said that rising interest rates due to inflation were partly due to Brexit. We won’t die of it, but an operation is needed and the sooner it is done, the less the long-term damage will be.

It might not be a realistic proposition right now to wish for us to join the Customs Union and the Single Market, but it would solve many of our problems.

A good friend of mine who voted for Brexit, recently volunteered to me out of the blue that he bitterly regretted it – he had not foreseen what a disaster it would be. It takes a lot of guts to admit something like that and to be mentally flexible enough to change course.

Could Rishi Sunak, an avowed Brexiter, find the courage and introspection to admit this? The chances are vanishingly small, but even senior Conservative politicians will admit that so is their chance of winning the next election – which no more than two years away at most.

Keir Starmer is playing his cards close to his chest, but if Labour is in charge, with polling showing a clear majority in favour of closer EU relations (57% according to master of the polls Sir John Curtice) maybe it’s not just wishful thinking after all?