Gwyn Jones Farm diary: Effects of Middle East events of great concern to farmers

There is great concern over the effects of the Middle East conflict on costs and prices for everyone and it is also of great concern to farmers. Fuel prices, availability and cost of fertilizer are three of the main concerns, but so many other things are made from oil such as baler twine and plastic wrap, that significant increases are expected. We have experience of this when Russia invaded the Ukraine, but this conflict has the potential to hit everyone much harder. It will depend how long it lasts, whether mitigation plans actually work and how soon everything returns to a new normal, as nothing ever goes back to how it was.

Meanwhile everyday life goes on for everyone, including the government, and as work continues on our re-set with the EU, Defra Secretary of State Emma Reynolds has been setting out how UK exporters and importers can benefit from the new Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) agreement. She stated last week that the new agreement will free British food and farming businesses from the current mountain of paperwork, unnecessary delays and spiralling costs of the current post Brexit arrangement.

Since 2018, the value of exports of food and agricultural products to the EU have fallen by 22%, a drop of almost £4 billion in real terms. That’s meant lost profits, shrinking markets and, in the worst cases, businesses closing their doors. With the new SPS agreement, trade will flow faster, resulting in imports of fresh produce reaching supermarket shelves more quickly as supply chains will become more resilient, strengthening food security here and in Europe. This creates opportunities to increase choice for consumers and ease pressures on food price inflation.

She said that we are talking about real businesses and real employers, and that since Brexit, Somerset cheesemaker’s export trade halved, the Welsh shellfish trader turning down orders because their catch isn’t fresh by the time the paperwork is done, the Scottish farmer who can no longer sell seed potatoes to customers they’ve supplied for decades.

By reducing delays and unnecessary paperwork, this deal will help keep shelves stocked, protect jobs and put downward pressure on food price inflation for families across the country. More great British produce will be on European tables thanks to this agreement which will reduce barriers for exporters and create new opportunities for farmers and businesses across all parts of the UK. The government is working toward a mid-2027 start date for the new agreement, which will save businesses thousands of pounds in phytosanitary certificates, export health certificates and all sort of other barriers to trade.

I was also pleased to see that the Home Office has reversed its decision to block visas for overseas sheep shearers. Some may call it another U-turn, but I would counter that it is a common sense change of policy having heard the case for sheep shearers. Not having sheep shearers from abroad (mainly New Zealand) come in and play a significant role in clipping our sheep would have led to severe animal welfare issues. The case was forcefully made to the Home Office and they agreed to allow visas to be granted.

However, the Home Office is understandably under intense pressure, given the politics around immigration and the granting of visas, stated that the sheep industry has had 14 years of visa concession, introduced at first to develop a long-term sustainable solution to fill the workforce gap by our own sheep shearers. Frankly, it makes perfect sense for others coming in to help shear our sheep, and many of our sheep shearers in turn going down under as well as other countries such as Norway to help shear their sheep.

I feel we miss out on so many aspects of life by tightening up immigration and visas to the extent that such practices are stopped. We are in danger since Brexit when people and students in particularly cannot travel and work abroad easily and threatens our country with a form of isolation from others. Solving government policies of the past and the huge mistakes made along the way, should not punish young people in particular when their lives become harder in this country and youth unemployment is so depressingly high.

We now have two raging wars filling our daily newspapers and media. Some politicians talk of getting involved, whilst the population I feel are not in the same place at all. It is incredible to see the various marches and protests taking place against or in favour of just about anything one could think of. Many have no grasp of what they are protesting against or for, but hey, that is just detail. Some protest in favour of regimes that would not tolerate protest of any kind, whilst others are involved in movements which in some way give them emotional fulfilment.

We talk of war, whilst a Brent Council in London threaten people with up to 5 years in prison for feeding birds, as it attracts rats and vermin. We are so ashamed of our history that the Bank of England is now to replace the likes of Winston Churchill (universally hated by the extreme left although they owe him their freedoms) with animals. Birmingham’s binmen have been on strike for more than a year and there seems no end in sight.

Some people take their frustrations out on lollipop persons, shouting abuse and charging through in a dangerous manner as the beleaguered individuals assist our school children to cross the road. Boots are now offering cut-price weight-loss jabs for people who are willing to exercise! Doctors state that they never turn down people who claim to have mental health issues and need to claim benefit. Does this sound like a country that is ready to weather the trauma and extreme hardship of war? Those politicians need a reality check I’m afraid if they think we have a resilient nation these days.

Wildlife and environment triumphs everything, and out government chases growth by adding to the cost of doing business. They are in a fix, as in order to encourage business they need to tackle the cost of doing business, reduce business rates, protect workplace flexibility, and support rather than constrain businesses looking to invest and create jobs. All anathema to the left and that is the issue which will do for this Labour government if they do not change tact on this. Its not too late if they move now, but somehow, I doubt Adam Smith features in their bedtime reading.

In the meantime, dairy markets have hit the bottom and are slowly recovering. Lamb and beef markets are still good and even the cereal markets are showing some signs of recovery. We can also be reassured that the large tortoiseshell butterfly is not extinct after all. Thriving in Europe, it has made a return to these shores after 60 years with a flurry of early spring sightings in the South of England (including West Sussex). I hope it can cope with the huge change since it was last here and that it will stay and get used to the placards!