Tesco meeting was a 'comprehensive discussion around challenges facing British agriculture'

All four UK farming unions, NFU Cymru, NFU Scotland, the NFU and Ulster Farmers Union met with Tesco on Wednesday to discuss its support of British agriculture both now and in the future and what Tesco can do to mitigate this
All four UK farming unions, NFU Cymru, NFU Scotland, the NFU and Ulster Farmers Union met with Tesco on Wednesday to discuss its support of British agriculture both now and in the future and what Tesco can do to mitigate this

“A comprehensive discussion around the challenges facing British agriculture,” that’s how NFU Cymru President, Stephen James, described his meeting this week with major retailer, Tesco.

All four UK farming unions, NFU Cymru, NFU Scotland, the NFU and Ulster Farmers Union met with Tesco on Wednesday to discuss its support of British agriculture both now and in the future and what Tesco can do to mitigate this.

Mr James continued, “The retailer was able to give an overview of its agricultural strategy for the future but what we really want to see are sustainable lamb and beef groups that work with processors and farmers as a matter of urgency.”

NFU Cymru has also recently met Iceland. Stephen James said, “This was a constructive and robust meeting and Iceland made it clear that it believes in, and wants to work towards, a sustainable and long-term agriculture sector.

“We are pleased that Iceland has committed to ways of getting the Red Tractor onto more products in-store and sourcing more British chilled red meat and that it is willing to engage in ongoing discussions on how this can happen.”

Mr James continued, “We welcome this initial commitment and we look forward to working closely with Iceland to ensure these efforts bear fruition and that it will benefit our members on the ground. We also used the meeting to challenge Iceland to better support farmers through the supply chain for liquid milk and cheese and we will continue to work with the retailer to discuss how this can work.”

NFU Cymru officeholders have also met with Lidl and Asda during the past week to discuss the current challenges facing the agriculture industry and what these retailers can do to mitigate this.

Stephen James concluded, “NFU Cymru will continue to meet with all the major retailers in order to stress the need for sustainable and equitable supply chains.”