Western Daily Press (Saturday)
NFU chief warns of food shortages and price rises
THE National Farmers Union (NFU) has warned of a “very, very serious situation” as production of certain crops plummet due to rising gas prices.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme yesteray, NFU president and West farmer Minette Batters said: “I think the impact is being felt most harshly, if you like, in the protected crop sectors, so that’s aubergines, peppers, cucumbers.
“We’re already seeing massive contraction because, for these businesses, really 50 per cent of their costs are reliant on the price of gas.”
Ms Batters, who is a beef and cereals farmer in Wiltshire, said farmers have been “talking about going from 80 million cucumbers to 35 million, 100 million peppers to 15 million.
“The easiest thing with these massive costs – the only thing – is to keep these glasshouses empty.
“It’s a very, very serious situation in that sector and this situation isn’t going to go away any time soon, so it’s about planning the future.”
The NFU is calling on the Government to act as “a matter of urgency”.
Ms Batters said: “We’re looking at the cost of a chicken now even 50% higher than it was this time last year.
“We’ve really got to look at the gas requirements for the whole industry and ask the Government that they do that as a matter of extreme urgency, and they pull together a marketing core group effectively that will monitor this situation with industry experts so we can plan and prepare, prioritise, and then look at where we potentially would want to intervene, because otherwise we are going to see less British production.”
Ms Batters added: “We are seeing wheat prices go to a place that they have never ever been to before. Ukraine and Russia are massive exporters of wheat – 30% of global wheat is produced there.
“Commodity prices are driven globally, so of course it’s going to drive massive inflation and we have to act to make sure that everybody, consumers, can have affordable food, but most importantly that we don’t contract production.
“So, that’s it, the essential bit – food supply and food production are one in the same thing – and with 60 million people you have to take it very seriously, you have to plan ahead.”