Industry experts speak at Agrovista conference
Farming post MTR was the headline of the Agrovista staff conference held at the Hilton Hotel Coventry recently.
Agrovista UK Limited advisers and staff heard three keynote speakers views on the future of farming post MTR and covered diverse topics and issues looking to the future of British agriculture. The speakers were:
Séan Rickard, Senior Lecturer in business economics at Cranfield School of Management
Guy Poskitt, Managing Director, Mark H Poskitt Limited the Yorkshire farmer and businessman
Dr Chris Brown, Head of Agricultural Strategy for ASDA
Séan Rickard after laying out the history of UK agricultural support challenged the delegates on the impact of the latest MTR reforms and de-coupling to the single farm payment forcing a modification of the behaviour of agribusinesses. It's all about continuing to thrive in the market based on world prices He foresees however a section of the farming community that may not modify their behaviour and it is still unclear how these businesses will treat the future payment structure. He foresees "the green option" and the extensification of farm enterprises being unlikely apart from a small number of beef and sheep enterprises.
The polarisation of the industry is getting even stronger with 66% of all holdings being part time or hobby farmers, but only 3% of output. 20% of holdings produce 80% of output in the form of large scale well managed farm businesses. The key to the future in all areas of agriculture is collaboration to better manage physical, human and knowledge resources. Along with this must be differentiation in the market place to capture value that at the moment is not being passed down to the farm gate.
Mr Rickard further commented "farmers must change the way they interact with the food chain, at the moment by and large growers do not communicate enough with processors and end users to get their fair share of the market value. Niche markets are available for those who can find the few that actually exist, but continuity of supply of quality assured, traceable products will provide the stable returns for the enterprise".
Guy Poskitt the successful Yorkshire farmer and businessman shared with the delegates the main driver for his business. Customer relationship has been one of the main reasons for the success of the company. The development of relationships have involved both up the supply chain to ASDA as the buyer and specifier and back to the supplying farmers and growers and working with Agrovista on agronomics and input management to provide the right product quality. Input and output forecasts can be managed when they are fully understood and transparent. This allows for the co-operation along the whole business chain to make sure quality and expectation are always exceeded. Mr Poskitt is adamant that you must "know your customer. It is important to find out who your customer is and what they really want. Its only then that you can start to review your market options and then manage and modify your product output".
Dr Chris Brown emphasised how his company ASDA continues to develop relationships with the supply chain and trust with suppliers and customers. Only by this strategy can British agriculture really prosper. He commented that consumer's taste and requirements are rapidly changing and the food market constantly has to respond to the pressure of time put on the consumer. High quality, nutritious, fast, fresh looking easy to prepare food is becoming more and more the market demand. At ASDA they are seeking to work more and more closely with suppliers in all sectors to respond and supply what the market wants.
ASDA are continually seeking to look at ways of working with British agriculture to provide greater alignment in the supply chain to supply markets for the benefit of growers and retailers. One area that has been successful is the 365-day supply of British carrots exclusively for ASDA stores providing fresh, high quality, British grown produce all the year round. Putting the food market into prospective Dr Brown explained that ASDA alone supply the consumer 640 hectares of pizza.
Commenting on the conference Agrovista UK Managing Director, James Robertson said "I was delighted when the three eminent speakers agreed to talk at our annual conference. The ideas and challenges they presented will be of immense value when our agronomists are working with their farmer clients to deal with the changes that are happening. Our company sees itself as being an integral part of the food chain".
