Huge challenges ahead, but the best have nothing to fear

As Texas freezes and Greece has snow on its beaches, we are back in springlike weather in West Sussex. It’s March 1 next Monday, St David’s Day, and the daffodils are out everywhere, taking over from the snowdrops. Only a few days left to cut hedges and some dry weather this week will help tractors travel on the land. Wildlife is reacting to these warm temperatures and there is more activity every week.

The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) have lost the horticulture vote in a big way, 61 per cent in favour of abolishing the compulsory levy. The potatoes sector vote is now live and the fear is that it will go the same way. It was always on the cards as many growers have complained for years and this should not be seen as a failure by the new chairman Nic Sapphire.

However, dig a little deeper and it is a different story.

Looking at the amount of levy paid, the vote was carried by a similar percentage and it’s the hundreds of small growers which (not exclusively) in the main voted against paying the levy.

Emotions are running high and the small group who have worked tirelessly to orchestrate the vote will not be denied now.

On hearing that the NFU is urging the Minister Victoria Prentis to think very carefully before making a decision and consult with levy-payers first, the more vociferous stated that this was not democratic and could be compared to closing the gates on third-class passengers on the Titanic, letting them drown in an attempt to save first-class passengers. The Titanic; not a great analogy for AHDB!

The truth is though that the large producers are the future in many respects and they engage more closely with AHDB as a rule and understand the work being done, such as the very important work on pesticides and breeding programmes; who else will do this work? Furthermore, the supply chain know exactly what growers costs are and if the levy is scrapped, that money will not remain in the growers pocket, it will be taken by the supply chain with lower prices.

The most extreme of levy payers claim they would rather lose it to retailers than give it to AHDB; such is the hatred of the levy body. However, it’s a tough job; from memory I think there are about 2,000 hortitculture levy payers and a range of crops from field vegetables to ornamental flowers numbering in total more than 300 different crops. It’s very difficult to make the money stretch and do justice to all of them and I look forward to seeing what the Minister does.

A voluntary levy? That would seem the sensible way, forming a tight club around those paying and minimising any advantage to those who do not. On the whole voluntary schemes do not work in agriculture with the most successful being the NFU and its membership, however those who do not join and pay membership still benefit from the work all the same. This has been made harder by NFU Mutual insurance selling to everyone these days where it used to be a very good reason to join the NFU.

With Covid, Brexit, increased feed prices and trading difficulties in many sectors; Red Tractor consulting to raise standards, the end of direct payments to farmers on its way, the introduction of new government schemes dominated by the environment, the Defra Pathway programme looking for higher health and welfare standards, the continuing pressure on antibiotic use in farming and processors (lead by Arla Co-op) raising standards, farmers are under huge pressure. This pressure is felt most within the

NFU as members resign, threaten to resign, kick up a fuss and are generally very difficult to placate. I’m afraid that most of the really noisy ones have not seen anything yet and as financial pressure will increase in the coming years, it is going to get worse; a lot worse.

Government and commentators talk of restructuring and how it is needed and the industry will be very different at the end of all this, but the reality of that is not pretty and it will mean large numbers of casualties. As I have said many times in this column, the best farmers have little to fear and this challenge is mainly for those who cannot farm to the required standards or cannot make their business pay and there are a lot of them; especially in the beef and sheep sector.

Currently pig farmers are dealing with the worst crisis for 20 years, unable to move pigs due to Covid affecting the workforce in abattoirs, the effect of Brexit on trade and a lack of China recertification for several abattoirs.

Thousands of pigs are backing up on farms with each one sold losing around £20 to its owner and when one considers that there is a backlog of over 100,000 pigs whilst less than half the pork in Asda and Tesco is from British farms, there is something wrong. We are nowhere near self-sufficiency in pig meat and something must give soon or we will lose a further big share of production as pig farmers report huge losses.

British sugar is up in arms over labelling rules which allows imported sugar to be sold as British. Grown abroad, sugar cane is processed and packaged here and currently allowed to be sold as British sugar. There is real anger over Brazilian sugar which is shipped around the world, cleaned and packaged in the American refinery and packed in a bag with ‘Made in Britain’ on it.

Scottish seed-potato growers are also distressed over the EU’s refusal to allow their product into their market. Leaving the EU has put paid to exports of 22,000 tonnes annually due to the UK being classified as a third country and sensitive products such as seed-potatoes require separate technical listings. The trade is currently banned and growers are pressurising government to ban the 30,000t imported into this country from abroad.

Wales is under attack! Whilst Iceland has its HQ in Wales, its director of corporate affairs has been sacked for tweeting unsavoury remarks about the Welsh language on social media; calling it ‘gibberish’ (he did also say that he was proud never to have visited Scotland).

Iceland is under pressure to pay back £40million of taxpayers’ money (as many other retailers have done) given that it has done very well under Covid restrictions.

Should they have sacked this rather sad person who claims his comments were meant to be humorous? Probably not as it’s not difficult to tolerate/ignore such comments, but difficult to see that he was much of an asset to the company.

A post box dating back to the reign of King George V built into a stone wall and in place for over 100 years near my mother’s home in North Wales, has been stolen.

The local paper commented that it was unclear if any post was also taken! Physically removed after demolishing the surrounding wall, police commented that the theft of this historic amenity has upset the community.