Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Lots of imports and not many exports
A lot has been sacrificed to trade with countries on the other side of the world, says Wiltshire dairy farmer Ro Collingborn
BREXIT has had a marked detrimental effect on our food exports, with extra cost and time delay, involving inspections, veterinary certificates and physical stamping.
The Food and Drink Federation says that exports of food and drink are down by 40%, cheese 66% and chicken and beef 75%. Exports of milk and cream were down 96% in February, compared with 2020. The fishing industry has been stymied and export delays mean that fresh produce is no longer fresh when it reaches the continent; no speed is being allowed for what are 24-hour businesses, making it impossible for them to operate.
Probably wanting to punish us for cutting free, the EU is subjecting our imports to every check allowable under the new regulations. Paper stamping and signing are being used instead of digitalisation and this is considerably slower. Meanwhile imports are coming in with few checks. We are suffering a double whammy; huge difficulties in exporting, while EU goods reach us unscathed.
We are told that our regulations will be in place by October, but we will not be starting checks till January 2022. Meanwhile, the EU enforces every letter of the law, while we take a “pragmatic approach”. By January 2022 a whole year will have passed, in which our food industry will have lost many of its contracts with the EU.
Before Brexit, we had a very smooth trade with our nearest neighbours which was working well. We had common standards, although our animal welfare was probably higher. This has all been sacrificed and the new plan is for trade deals with countries from the other side of the world. How will this help our carbon footprint? What will be the impact on animal welfare?
We are currently negotiating a trade agreement with Australia, a country that has the largest export trade of live animals in the world; many of these are older animals travelling for weeks to be unloaded for ritual slaughter in the Middle East. New Zealand had a disaster last year exporting 10,000 cattle to China, where all the animals and most of the crew were lost when the ship sunk off the coast of Japan. They have announced that they will no longer export live cattle by ship, mainly on welfare grounds. New
Zealand has commented that consumers are increasingly concerned about animal welfare. Unfortunately this trade is very likely to be taken up by Australia.
Australia insists that it has goldplated welfare standards – it’s difficult to see how. If we are restricting live animal transport here, moving towards a ban, shouldn’t we apply these standards to countries who want us to take their food imports? Perhaps this would make Australia think twice and help the suffering of all those cull animals loaded onto many layers on huge ships, leaving that country for eventual slaughter.
The figures themselves are horrendous – 200 million animals over the last 30 years, with two and a half million dying on route from trampling, dehydration and starvation. When we have to cull animals at the end of their lives, we make sure they are taken to the nearest abattoir, half an hour away. They have lived all their lives on our farm and don’t owe us anything.
If the Government’s food policy were to favour local sourcing, what a difference it would make. Hospital patients would be offered healthier food to aid their recoveries, our troops could enjoy British beef, rather than Argentinian, and our politicians could stuff themselves with British meat rather than empty words. Why shouldn’t children be offered food that has low food miles, is more welfare friendly and been produced on local farms relevant to their environment? Most farmers are happy to host school visits to help children see where their food comes from.
The current beef trade is an example, as imports have been disrupted by Covid. Beef trade is flying and has been for some time during lockdown; it’s reached a high of £4/kg. Consumers have been using their local butcher, or supermarket, and supermarkets also tend to buy British meat – their attempts to stock Polish mince early in Brexit getting short shrift! It’s the food service sector
that uses a considerable amount of imported meat. With the South American trade restricted due to Covid, the sector has to buy British. Long may this continue! I would encourage you all when you start eating out to ask if the beef is British.
Unfortunately for farmers, costs have been shooting up since Brexit, and not all sectors have been as lucky as beef. With a ban on export of seed potatoes, and chip shops and restaurants closed, there is now a potato mountain, and pig farming has suffered with pigs backed up on farms, with falling prices and increased costs.
For us dairy farmers fertiliser is up 20%, feed prices up over 15% and rising and all building costs up, with anything made of steel being considerably more expensive, though this last is due to China importing more steel. The milk price to the farmer has gone up very slightly, averaging one penny a litre more. At the moment we have low inflation and low interest rates. Will the rise in prices have an impact on inflation, or just the shirt on the farmer’s back? It’s not all bad though.
This week, I was feeling overwhelmed by all the paperwork necessitated by various government
schemes, and reflecting I’d come into farming in the first place as I liked to be outside, when I suddenly saw five little fluffy moorhen chicks and their mum.
They were surrounded by the cowslips that have always grown on the bank of our old farm reservoir, and I thought this is more what life should be about.
■ Ro Collingborn has been dairy chairman of the Women’s Food and Farming Union, on the Milk Development Council, the Veterinary Products Committee, the RSPCA Council and is currently a Wiltshire Wildlife Trust Director