Annual Conference for Single Farm Payment in Wales

The next 12 months will see farmers adapting their businesses to deal with the advent of the Single Farm Payment - meaning farmers will be totally reliant upon the market place for their future. Against this background NFU Cymru has organised its Annual Conference for

3 November to look at how farmers will meet this challenge.

Carwyn Jones, the Welsh Assembly Minister for Environment, Planning and Countryside will deliver the keynote address. Opening the conference will be John Lloyd Jones, the Chairman of the Countryside Council for Wales who will look at the environmental opportunities for farmers.

Mark Berrisford-Smith, Senior Economist for HSBC bank, will consider the financial situation facing the industry in the next 12 months. In the afternoon session, Professor Gareth Edwards-Jones from the University of Wales, Bangor and Director of CALU, the Centre for Alternative Land Use, will address the conference.

Peredur Hughes, NFU Cymru President said, "Thanks go to our sponsors, HSBC bank and the Welsh Development Agency for their generous support for the conference which is set to be very interesting. I am confident that we as food producers will meet the challenges we face in the next 12 months. However, it is crucial that the rest of the food chain from processors to supermarkets realise that unless the primary producer is able to make a decent and honest living, then the whole of that chain is in jeopardy."

The Conference will be held in the International Pavilion at the Royal Welsh Showground, Builth Wells.