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Members of NFU Cymru remain unconvinced by proposed reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) despite arguments to react positively to change put forward by Alun Davies, Welsh Government Deputy Minister for Agriculture.

Addressing the NFU Cymru Annual Conference in Builth Wells, Mr Davies said,
’Arguably, the biggest challenge the industry faces currently is CAP reform. I don’t need to tell you that a strong CAP is essential to the future prosperity of rural Wales and that any radical change in the CAP would place the viability of many farm businesses in jeopardy. I believe firmly in more gradual change, an evolutionary rather than revolutionary approach. But change there must be, because the world has moved on, farming has changed and the challenges that society faces are now very different. It is therefore right to reform CAP but these reforms must ensure that the necessary changes are made without undermining its foundations and compromising the future of rural Wales.’

Responding to Mr Davies’ reassurances, the President of NFU Cymru Ed Bailey said, ’While we welcome the Deputy Minister’s words on the need to adapt to change, as an industry we have always responded to change but are concerned that several of the proposed CAP reforms will hinder rather than help the industry to produce food sustainably for a growing population.

’The pace at which the CAP change is intended to happen could cause a lot of financial problems for farmers who are expected to move from the current historic Single Farm Payment Scheme to a new one based on areas. The so-called ’greening’ element will cause disruption to some of our most productive land. Prescriptive rules on grassland, cropping and the re-introduction of set-aside land will put at risk our competitiveness and ability to adapt to new markets and climatic conditions. We believe it could be a step backwards rather than a step forwards but we hope we can work with Welsh Government to resolve these issues,’ Mr Bailey said.

The main theme of the NFU Cymru Annual Conference was ’Retail Matters’ and the Deputy Minister’s speech was followed by several speakers eminently qualified to talk on the subject.

Jane Bevis, Director of Public Affairs, British Retail Consortium (BRC), told farmers they had a key role to play in helping to sustain rural retail within their local communities. ’It is more of a challenge than in well-populated areas such as Cardiff, the flagship destination for retailing, to sustain good retail services in a more sparsely populated area. Local services become even more important, so farming has a role to contribute in encouraging investment, local skills and economic innovation, which then spread out to the wider population. Retail is vital to Wales and will remain so,’ she said, adding that the BRC would like to see a single minister in Welsh Government to be responsible for retailing.

’Welsh milk for Welsh people,’ was the message from Richard Arnold, founder of The Proper Welsh Milk Company, who gave the audience an object lesson on how entrepreneurial spirit can succeed in rural Wales. His company has brought milk bottling back to south west Wales after a two year absence. ’Most consumers don’t understand that milk has been leaving Wales to be bottled over the border in England, and then comes back all the way by truck, making a total of four journeys, two of which are the empty vehicles coming in to pick up the product. We have changed this and we collect milk for nothing from farmers within 30 miles of the dairy. We have also been fortunate to have struck a deal to supply our product to Tesco, which has been very supportive,’ Mr Arnold said.

Ed Garner, Communications Director of market research company Kantar Worldpanel, gave farmers an insight into the current positioning of the major and smaller supermarkets, in particular the increasing trend towards stocking locally sourced food products against a background of economic recession and a drop in consumer confidence. ’Food is relatively recession-proof. After a while, consumers start to think beyond the price offer to focus more on quality. Local provisioning has grown, partly due to people wanting to know the provenance of their food,’ Mr Garner said, adding that in the 1960s about 25 per cent of household income was being spent on food, making food today comparatively cheap.

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