Buy British for the millennium
Buy British for the millennium
THE Farmers Union of Wales is encouraging members and the public to send a message to France by using British food for their Millennium celebrations – and throughout the coming year.
Bob Parry, FUW president, visited a cheese factory and vineyard in Ceredigion. As he toasted the festive season with Reichensteiner, produced from vines developed in Germany, with grower Martin Lewis, he said domestic products should be substituted for some of Frances £1.24bn alcohol sales in the UK.
While not calling for a boycott, he suggested that consumers could cheer Britains beleaguered farmers by trying wines made in Britain, like the four types produced at the tiny Ffynnon Las vineyard at Aberaeron.
Earlier he sampled the cheddar cheeses made at Milk Marque Developments Aeron Valley Cheese at Felinfach. Manager, Jim Doyle, told him that a new £2.2m store and pre-packing shed would allow annual production to rise from 7000t to over 12,000t.
This would add value to 120m litres of milk produced in the area and, Mr Doyle suggested, could be reflected in higher farmgate prices.
But he warned that competition was tough, especially when imported cheddar arrived at a cost of £1900/t, or less than the UK cost of production, and the strong £ made exporting very difficult. That said, the factory was exporting cheddar to Japan and Double Gloucester to the US. *