Time to ‘level the playing field’ for farm-assured UK grain
© Tim Scrivener Farm assurance scheme operators need to step up their efforts to secure fairer treatment for home-produced grain when competing with unassured imported grain at UK feed mills.
That is one of the conclusions of the latest Farm Assurance Review (FAR) progress report, looking at how well farm assurance bodies are doing at implementing the 56 recommendations made by the original commissioners’ report into Red Tractor and other scheme operations in January 2025.
See also: Retail body snubs farm assurance monitoring review
Writing in the report, published on Tuesday (26 May), monitoring commissioner David Llwewellyn says there are two main topics that need to be resolved.
“The first is the way in which farm assurance should operate for the crops sector, so that farmers can see benefits from the assurance system and so there is a more transparent approach to the use of their products beyond the farm gate,” he says.
“At the moment, there remains a strong view that there is not a level playing field for UK farmers when competing with imported products and that their efforts through the assurance system get lost further along the supply chain.”
Dr Llewellyn acknowledges that the AHDB and the Red Tractor sector boards are working towards a solution, but urges greater priority to address the issue.
He also highlights the issue of measuring and evaluating farmers’ environmental improvements – the issue that triggered the whole Red Tractor review process in 2024 when it tried to establish a “greener farms commitment”, sharing farmers environmental data with retailers.
“At present, there remains a vacuum on this issue which is being filled in a piecemeal manner through a variety of other organisations in the agri-food sector,” says Dr Llewellyn.
Industry response
The progress report was jointly commissioned by the AHDB and the four main farm unions, which acknowledged that good progress had been made in some areas.
But urgent action was still required elsewhere.
“On environmental measurement, we must reach a consensus around an industry-led approach and ensure reporting has a clear purpose, provides genuine value, and involves farmers and growers from day one,” said a joint union statement.
“Issues within the combinable crops sector also need to be addressed with structural changes urgently needed to abandon the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach and lift the unsustainable audit burden on our growers.”
The AHDB says it is still researching that issue and hopes to complete this work by autumn 2026.
Overall progress
Overall, the latest report says there has been good progress towards improving the operation of the UK’s 12 quality assurance schemes – particularly in the devolved regions and with Red Tractor.
“Farm assurance schemes in the devolved nations report that they generally have constructive dialogue with their respective governments,” it says.
However, it adds that Defra has not yet fully addressed the prospect of better co-ordination with assurance scheme providers in England, describing it’s response as “underwhelming”.
New document outlines farm assurance ‘reset’
The AHDB and NFU have also published a joint paper, setting out what they see as the purpose and scope of farm assurance, which they hope will serve as a “bedrock” for future development.
This envisages both a “foundation” layer of farm assurance covering basic legal requirements such as food safety, animal welfare and pollution prevention, and an “enhanced” layer, which may cover things like organic standards or environmental enhancement.
Any enhanced layer should be optional and should support product differentiation and involve a price premium, they suggest.
