Radnor YFC members were recently given the opportunity to meet with Tom Tynan, a member of Phil Hogan, the EU Comissioner's, Cabinet.
The engaging discussions took place at NFU Cymru headquarters in Llanelwedd and were an opportunity for the younger generation to gain clarity on the current issues facing Welsh farmers and how the EU Commission were ensuring the industry would thrive in the future. Discussions centred around the low lamb prices experienced this season as a result of strong competition from New Zealand imports, the Rural Development Programme (RDP), greening measures and innovation in farming.
Tom Tynan stressed the importance of innovation, knowledge transfer and promotion of the industry in the coming years. He said, “Knowledge is everything, without this, industry innovation will be stifled. With the growing world population and the challenges of climate change ahead, we must produce more, using less. Agriculture and food will have to adapt to this new century’s reality, this can only be done through innovation.
“In order to move product, you must promote it, farmers in all sectors have a great story to tell and we must tell it. China, among other countries, trust our product because it’s viewed as secure, traceable and trustworthy thanks to the strict guidelines we have in place. The European Commission have made major changes in the promotion policy which will come into place on 1 December 2015, with the EU spend on promotion rising from €80million, to €200million by 2019.”
Adam Rees, Chairman of Radnor YFC, concluded the discussions and said, “I would like to thank Tom Tynan for giving up his time to meet with us. I am sure you’ll all agree that the discussions have been very insightful and have given us a lot to think about. Group discussions such as this, provide our YFC members with an opportunity to ask questions and voice our concerns and we have been very lucky to do this with someone who is so influential in our industry. Thank you also to NFU Cymru for organising the meeting.”
