British horticulture could face increasing legislation and regulatory procedures, said NFU president Tim Bennett at last week’s Horticulture in Focus conference.

Bennett said the NFU is focusing on an alternative buyers charter to supercede the Office of Fair Trading Code of Practice which is under review. "The latter is much delayed,” he said. "The NFU is committed to making the Code tougher.

"In parallel we are working on a Buyers charter that would apply throughout the whole of the supply chain and would apply to the food and the non-food sector alike.

“The Buyers Charter not only addresses the issues of reasonableness and fair play which the existing code fails to do but also the issue of behaviour throughout the whole of the supply chain.

If this is accepted by the retail sector, companies could be regularly and independently audited to ensure compliance and results will be published, Bennett added: “Importantly the charter would cover all sectors within the chain and not just the big four retailers.”

With publicity surrounding the actions of at least two retailers this year, the case for the charter has gained in strength, Bennett claimed. The NFU intends to establish environment in which growers could build long-term relationships with their customers to ensure a long-term growing business.

He said: “We will continue to advance the case for the buyers charter and believe it is important that the whole of the supply chain signs up to its principles. If they do not I believe that the political background will mean that the demand for a statutory code...will continue to grow.”

Bennett warned delegates to expect increasing scrutiny in the years to come. “The way that horticulture businesses operate will continue to remain under the spotlight in 2005. Particularly under close scrutiny will be the way we manage the staff that we employ,” he said, adding that with immigration issues high on the political agenda there is no room for error.

“We cannot afford to be cast in any way as abusing the rights of our workers and we must be prepared to be open in what we do on our farms.” he said. “However, we must be clear that our horticultural businesses need immigrant workers, mainly on a seasonal basis, to undertake the work that the domestic work force simply doesn’t want to do or cannot do.

“…political point scoring in a pre-election frenzy on the issue of immigration should not put at risk schemes like the seasonal agricultural workers scheme which has contributed to not only ensuring that we have a reliable source of labour but over the years has also done much to help develop the national and cultural relations between the UK and other countries,” he added.

On the topic of gangmaster licensing, Bennett said the NFU will continue working to ensure all parties are aware of the legal requirements and he urged Defra to play a part in this communication.

Along with these issues growers should expect continuing demands for higher quality produce, be aware of the increasingly global outlook of the horticulture business and the intensifying responsibility of the developed countries to those less-developed, according to Bennett.

Bennett said: “This is likely to lead to further relaxation of trade barriers between countries and the borders will become blurred and the buying policies of retailers even more international. It is in this context that British growers will need to find new ways of finding their unique selling proposition if they are going to continue to supply into these major markets at a price that is able to sustain their businesses.”

Future access to markets will be determined as much by the way the produce is produced as the quality of the produce, he concluded.

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