Producers and policy- makers come together
Producers and policy- makers come together
The SNFUs Jim Walker says
the Scottish Parliament has
brought a fresh approach
ALTHOUGH farmers visiting this years Highland Show know only too well that market conditions are still as tough as ever, Scottish NFU president Jim Walker believes progress has been made in the past year towards finding longer-term solutions to the industrys woes. There are still, however, many frustrations. The establishment of a Scottish Parliament has, says Mr Walker, certainly brought farmers and policy makers north of the border much closer together.
"We see a different approach now we have our own farm minister, Ross Finnie. He has brought a fresh attitude to the job, with a good understanding of the marketplace and where we need to go," he says.
Mr Finnie has found an ally in Mr Walker in his determination to put Scotlands farmers in the strongest position possible to succeed in what both believe will be an increasingly unsupported industry that must rely more on what it can achieve from the market than on subsidy payments.
Earlier this year Mr Finnie launched a major consultation exercise in a bid to bring all involved in agriculture together to produce, for the first time, a blueprint for the future of Scottish farming. "This is just one example of the more forward-looking approach we are now encountering," Mr Walker says.
Results of another Finnie-commissioned study, this time on the opportunities and weaknesses in the Scottish sheep industry, are due to be published shortly. "We look forward to the results of that," says the union president.
This spirit of co-operation, however, seems to have eluded civil servants in London, a subject that clearly irritates Mr Walker greatly. "There are real problems with MAFFs unwillingness to share information," he says, pointing to the recent fiasco where some spring oilseed rape seed was contaminated with genetically modified varieties. MAFF knew about the problem but failed to tell anyone, including Scottish agriculture officials, for a month.
"This has to be addressed. We just cant allow this sort of attitude to continue because, at the end of the day, the only loser in civil service squabbling like this is the farmer."
Bickering closer to home is a source of great annoyance. Quality Meat Scotland, the organisation due to be launched on July 1 to integrate promotion and quality assurance work for beef, lamb and pork, has caused widespread industry feuding since it was announced last November.
"But what I just cannot comprehend is that those who are hell-bent on continuing the petty squabbles are either ignoring the huge market pressures out there or they simply dont understand them," he says.
"Our premium for Scotch beef is being eroded by the combination of retailer price pressure and currency-facilitated imports. We face a review of the CAP sheepmeat regime which could have a devastating impact here. Pig producers are still struggling to break even. Yet there are still people out there who want to spend their time arguing about the name of the new organisation. I really dont understand that."
Turning to the prospects for the different sectors, Mr Walker is most concerned about arable farming. "Returns from dairying are still hellish, beef looks uncertain, sheep seems a bit more hopeful and pigs are beginning to look a bit brighter. But the prospect for cereals is certainly the most worrying," he says.
"Prices look awful and we are again going to see arable aid payments cut because of the weak Euro compared with sterling. As well as currency problems we have the threat of modulation from next year and, at the moment, I cannot see any way of getting a fair share of the money taken from all farmers by modulation back to cereal growers." Added to that is the failure, yet again, to win any agrimoney compensation payments for arable farmers – a result, Mr Walker says, of the blinkered belief in Whitehall that all arable farmers are fat-cat barley barons.
Drastic cuts
He also worries that future CAP reforms, discussions on which are likely to start in the next couple of years, will result in further drastic cuts in the sectors support. With more than half the CAP budget going to arable farmers its the first place Brussels officials will look when they want to cut expenditure to help fund EU expansion, he believes.
European politics are also likely to rule out any chance of the UK regaining a meaningful beef export market this year. "I cant see there being any relaxation of the Date-Based Export Scheme before Christmas," he says. One of the main reasons is that the French assumed the presidency of the EU on June 1. "And I think wed all be very surprised if they were keen to help us relax the current export restrictions in any way."
Even so, farmers must continue to look ahead. "All the uncertainties we have to work with in the livestock sector just reinforce my belief that we as farmers have got to look at the quality end of the market. Weve done all we need to in terms of quality assurance. Now we need to concentrate on improving eating quality."
Scottish NFU president Jim Walker says progress is being made.