Welsh farmers 'must recover funding' as NFU meets EU Commissioner

EU Agriculture Commissioner, Phil Hogan
EU Agriculture Commissioner, Phil Hogan

NFU Cymru officeholders met with the new EU Agriculture Commissioner, Phil Hogan, to discuss a number of key areas where he can help support Welsh agriculture.

NFU Cymru President Stephen James used the opportunity to brief the Commissioner on the importance of food and farming to the economy of Wales. He also discussed with Mr Hogan the EU agriculture policies that have most impact on farming businesses in Wales at this time, namely CAP implementation, dairy support and sheep EID rules.

On CAP Stephen James said, “All sectors of agriculture in Wales have suffered at different times over the past 12 months from significant price volatility; this has once again highlighted the importance of direct payments to secure the production of adequate supplies of food produced to the highest food quality and animal welfare standards.

“However the current reform has added additional complexity to what was already an overly bureaucratic system. We are pleased that the Commissioner told us he has CAP simplification as one of his key priorities.

“We discussed a number of areas where we felt change was needed; this included a light touch to Greening in 2015, given that the Commission was so late in providing the detailed guidance on how these new rules are to be implemented. We discussed mapping issues asking for a pragmatic approach to dealing with deductions for trees and other features in land parcels where agricultural production takes place.”

On Rural Development NFU Cymru highlighted to Mr Hogan that the Welsh Government was unique in having decided to make use of the maximum allowable 15% pillar transfer from 2014. Mr James said, “Our priority is to ensure that farmers have the opportunity to recover this funding lost from direct payments through the new Wales RDP. At present this is being delayed while the Welsh Government await approval of the Wales RDP from the Commission. We asked the Commissioner to do all he could to expedite this process to ensure that the new RDP could be used at the earliest opportunity to support farmers and the rural economy of Wales.”

NFU Cymru used the meeting to raise with the Commissioner the need for increased support from the Commission to support the dairy industry through the current milk price crisis.

Stephen James said, “We pressed Mr Hogan to urgently review the current EU ‘safety net’ mechanisms that are meant to support farmers in the face of extreme price cuts. The current intervention price is set so low as to be irrelevant even at this time. With the majority of Welsh milk processed into cheese and other commodity products our farmers are extremely exposed to global markets, intervention should be used at this time to bring some much needed stability to the sector.”

Sheep EID and individual recording was also a matter that NFU Cymru brought to the attention of the Commissioner with John Davies, NFU Cymru Deputy President, stressing the need for a level of tolerance in the inspection regime. John Davies said, “We are five years on from the introduction of this unpopular regulation, but despite the best efforts of farmers, livestock markets and abattoirs it has not proved possible to ensure 100% read rates 100% of the time. We asked the Commissioner to look once again at the issue of tolerances and for the Commission to come forward with proportionate guidance that takes account of the fact that technology can never be expected to work with the accuracy required by the regulation.”

Concluding Mr James said, “This was a wonderful opportunity to highlight to the man responsible for driving the agricultural agenda across Europe the challenges and opportunities that Welsh agriculture faces at this time. I found the meeting positive and constructive and we will follow up with many of the issues discussed today with further meetings with Mr Hogan and his officials in the near future through our team in Brussels.”