NFU Cymru calls for Welsh Assembly contingency funding to aid recovery of industry

NFU Cymru has today called on the Welsh Assembly Government to use contingency resources to aid the recovery of the agriculture industry to mitigate its current economic plight due to the on-going Foot and Mouth restrictions.

The Union, at a meeting of the Assembly's Finance Committee yesterday, indicated that over £40million had already been lost from the Welsh farming industry as a result of movement and trade restrictions imposed as a consequence of Foot and Mouth disease.

Dai Davies, NFU Cymru President said, "The devastating economic ramifications of Foot and Mouth in Wales reaffirm the desperate need for an early recovery aid package so that we can put right some of the damage that has been caused to the industry through absolutely no fault of its own.

"During the meeting with the Finance Committee we pressed again for parity of treatment with Scottish farmers who are likely to receive £6 per breeding ewe. The fact is the Welsh sheep sector has been hit particularly badly and certainly no less so than Scotland so we were particularly disappointed to learn yesterday that the Welsh Assembly Government's Finance Minister had not been formally asked about the possibility of financing a similar scheme to aid the recovery of the Welsh sheep sector."

NFU Cymru understands that there is no contingency reserve for animal health in Wales but given the farming industry in Wales' quite exceptional predicament due to the release of FMD virus from Government licensed laboratories at Pirbright it is looking to the Rural Affairs Minister to robustly seek money from Welsh Assembly Government contingency reserves to aid the recovery of the industry.

Dai Davies concluded, "We have contended all along that the Treasury, in our view, has a legal and moral responsibility to meet the cost of a recovery package but at the end of the day, the Welsh Assembly Government is responsible for farming in Wales and if it is unable to persuade Treasury to meet its obligations then we have to look to the Welsh Assembly Government to assist the industry in its hour of desperate need."