Ministers hear first hand from embattled Welsh farmer

Politicians from Westminster and Cardiff visiting a Welsh family farm faced heavy lobbying for financial aid to alleviate the pressure on the sheep sector.

Huw Irranca-Davies, parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Welsh Office, and Assembly member Alun Davies were told that half of Wales’ producers may quit within two years.

Host farmers Eirwyn and Nest Jones told them that they could be among the casualties unless the Treasury or Assembly funded an aid package.

Mr Jones estimated a loss of £3500 on the 400 lambs sold from their Felinhelin farm at Capel Madog near Aberystwyth since early August.

“There is no future unless we get extra help and realistic prices for what we produce,” Mr Jones claimed.

Small producers could not survive the low returns, competition from imports and escalating production costs. At Felinhelin the situation had been exacerbated by bovine tuberculosis in their 50 cow dairy herd.

Brynmor Morgan, chairman of the Farmers Union of Wales‘ Ceredigion branch, which organised the visit, said the industry was “on its knees and in danger of drawing its last breath”.

“The UK government can’t deny actual and moral responsibility for the outbreak of foot-and-mouth that led to our difficulties,” Mr Morgan told Mr Irranca-Davies.

“You got us in this mess and you cannot just walk away. If you do you will be responsible for something akin to the Scottish Clearances. Farmers have been clobbered by the supermarkets and rising costs for so long that the financial well is dry and many can’t pay their rents.

“We need an immediate injection of aid to stay alive and a prescription for the long term treatment of all the industry’s ills.”

Gareth Vaughan, FUW president, warned that the industry was in meltdown and that could only be reversed by a basket of measures covering an aid scheme similar to the one in Scotland, better prices, limits on imports and a rethink on charges imposed on producers.

Without action the farming crisis would impact on the whole rural economy, already considered by many to be in a fragile state. The announcement that 75% of Welsh farmers would get their single farm payments on the day the payment window opened was welcomed, but most of the cash would go to reducing overdrafts and not invested in holdings.

Mr Irranca-Davies said he did not underestimate the impact of F&M regulations and would pass on all he had heard to the Treasury and DEFRA. He was aware of Welsh farming’s history of self-help and of producers’ willingness to adapt to market needs.

“We have to find a way through this current crisis and then drive the industry forward,” he claimed.

“I can make no promises, but I do not believe that either the UK or Welsh Assembly governments will allow the industry to collapse.”