Gwyn Jones Farm diary: I came away from the NFU Conference proud of the farming industry

I went to the NFU Conference last week, this was my thirtieth and I have seen many changes during that time. This time I was truly surprised, pleasantly so at what I found. It was well attended, no protests of any kind outside, the mood was good considering the challenges, everyone was realistic and very well behaved, and President Tom Bradshaw who I chatted to first thing was buoyant. I attended the dairy breakout session, and it was the most professionally run session I had attended, accepting that things were tough, but focussing on the biggest challenge facing the dairy industry, pollution.

I came away very proud of our industry, a very different picture to the one painted in the mainstream media. At the end of conference, NFU Council had their biannual moment of power, voting to keep Tom Bradshaw as President of the NFU, but not the deputy David Exwood (who farms near Horsham in West Sussex) or Rachel Hallos the vice president. They were replaced by Paul Tompkins (NFU Dairy Board Chair) and Robyn Munt (farming on the Isle of Wight). It’s a brutal business, and it ends in a flash, you drive home very much alone and the mobile phone and email messages from HQ and elsewhere all stop.

Tom Bradshaw kicked off the conference with the usual President opening speech. He stated that farmers are under huge pressure, financial, physical and psychological, but to put it in context look at farmers in the Ukraine where some have lost everything. British farmers are dealing with depressed global commodity prices, high energy prices, extreme weather and floods, the uncertainty of government’s environmental schemes, all contributing to uncertainty and lack of confidence.

For 30 years no one thought about war or the need for food security he said, now war is on our doorstep and things must change. We need to build farm confidence, and my job, despite protests from some farmers, as NFU President I need to keep us in the room; we need to make our case to government. We have planning issues which prevent progress and replacement, public procurement for our schools, hospitals, armed forces and prisons is imported food, often produced to different standards. Where is the £1.83 billion that has not been paid to farmers as farm payments since Brexit? We need answers

There were some interesting speakers at Conference, our old Friend or foe Professor Tim Lang was there to persuade us that it is not food security but food resilience we should worry about and seek to correct. Producing for commodity markets is all well and good he said, but people can’t eat that, the purpose of farming is to feed people well. The question you should ask yourselves is, can you feed your region? Our just-in-time system is vulnerable, he said.

Can you imagine, 98 companies have 98.5% of the market, they have 131 distribution depots, how long would it take in a war where hundreds of drones are deployed daily, to wipe those out? Whilst we all thought about this and realised that what he was saying had a great deal of truth to it, how on earth could everything change so radically, and would people pay? The reason we have the systems we do in the food industry is in order to squeeze every bit of efficiency out of every link in the chain in order to keep prices down. We would need a cultural change from consumers for this to happen.

Whilst I contemplated the scale of change needed and the obstacles in the way of change, on walks the next speaker, Harry Smit senior food analyst at Rabobank. That banks would not allow such a change became very clear, although he did not say so, but such is the trade aspects and lending protocols, putting supermarkets, food companies, multi-national corporations to one side, I got the impression that the banks are not for turning. One worrying aspect of his presentation was that banks are challenged on their environmental/carbon footprint across all lending, and that is why we now see farmers questioned about their environmental credentials when asking for loans.

After lunch we heard from Dmitry Grozoubinsky, director of ExplainTrade, who’s book is entitled ‘Why do politicians lie about trade’. This book written by the former trade negotiator, offers a witty introduction to trade deals, how they work, how leaders weaponise it to win votes, wage culture wars and spin economic fairy tales. It is highly readable, with a built in bullshit-detector for every grand promise about tariffs, trade deals and jobs. Dmitry was entertaining, very intelligent as you would expect, and did little to further our trust in politicians.

Dmitry asked what is fair in international trade deals? Welfare standards and environmental standards differ, are they taken seriously? Is it right or fair to import food produced to different standards? Is it a level playing field or just shutting the door? The UK has a good track record here, he said. What do negotiators want and who wants it the most? Lip service is often paid to impact assessments. It comes down to a couple of issues the public can understand, and so you sell the story. Global leaders thinking about food security worry about the simple slogan, where as the reality is very complex. The question to ask is, ‘What exactly are you preparing us for’?

Our next speaker was the Rt Hon Emma Reynolds, Secretary of State! A new Secretary of State (again), Emma Reynolds was introduced with warm words by Tom Bradshaw, who majored on the very good relations they have formed already and the hard work she did when appointed to change the inheritance Tax debacle. She conducted herself very well, answered all the questions intelligently, and succeeded in putting across that she wants to work in partnership with industry. She also had some good news items, as she promised to supercharge farming!

The Sustainable farm Incentive will be simplified, and a promise that it will not come to a sudden end again as it did under the Conservatives, and agreements will be capped at £100,000 in order to offer fairness to all farmers. There is to be a £345 million funding boost to drive future growth by funding technology and other grant packages. There is much to do to win back farmer’s trust in this government, but the Secretary of State did at least start that process at Conference.

Having returned from the NFU Conference, I see that dairy farmers are not the only ones producing too much for their markets, at least with milk and dairy the market is robust and strong and will recover in a matter of months. The wine market after decades of growth and excitement is in decline, with wine being destroyed, turned into crude alcohol for cleaning products, mouthwash and whisky. The world we are told, is drowning in wine and the industry is in crisis. Overproduction, changing tastes, young people not drinking much wine, health concerns for others cutting down on consumption and so on. The consumption of red wine is declining fastest, and unlike beer and spirits, the wine industry is ill-equipped to deal with fast change. It is becoming a crisis for them.