The fresh produce industry should act quickly and concisely to achieve key objectives such as a grocery ombudsman before the new government has time to settle.
Political commentator Iain Dale expressed this view at the 2010 Re:fresh Conference in London last week, urging the trade to move swiftly to ensure supermarkets do not continue to “screw the price down” and stagnate innovation in the industry.
In a forthright address, Dale challenged the industry to take its cause to the government and lobby hard to influence the mindset of incoming, “ill-informed” ministers.
He said the trade needs to put aside “long-winded whinges” and offer solutions to achieve industry goals and, in turn, allow MPs to be re-elected.
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have previously backed calls for an independent retail regulator but will be wary of creating another quango amid criticism of the proliferation of such bodies.
Dale’s speech followed the shock announcement that shadow DEFRA secretary of state Nick Herbert would not be heading up the department. Instead, Caroline Spelman, MP for the mixed rural and urban constituency of Meriden in the West Midlands, is taking the top job ahead of favourites Herbert and Lib Dem Tim Farron.
Dale said it was important that industry leaders meet with Spelman and fellow Conservative farming minister Jim Paice as soon as possible. Elsewhere at the top of DEFRA, Conservatives Richard Benyon MP and Lord Henley are parliamentary undersecretaries of state, although it is expected that the department will have a strong Lib Dem contingency shortly.
It is thought the energy and climate change post, given to Lib Dem Chris Huhne, could be expanded to include the environment in future.
The coalition document agreed by the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats released on 11 May features several key measures to rein in damage to the environment. These could affect horticultural businesses.
The coalition agreed to promote a huge increase in energy produced from waste through anaerobic digestion, establish a high-speed rail network that could take freight off the road and cancel plans for a third runway at Heathrow Airport - a produce hub that receives more fresh produce than the rest of the UK’s airports combined.
A DEFRA source said it was “still early days” for Spelman to outline her priorities but the new secretary of state met with National Farmers’ Union (NFU) president Peter Kendall on Wednesday.
NFU senior parliamentary advisor Matt Ware told FPJ that progress in forming the new DEFRA department had been “painfully slow” and that there was a likelihood that one of Spelman, Paice, Benyon or Henley would take responsibility for horticulture.
It had been expected there would be a Lib Dem in every department but this has not been borne out and civil servants are said to have been “impressed” by Paice’s knowledge, meaning the department could remain all Conservative at the top.
Ware said: “Generally, the new coalition is a positive step. Both the Conservatives and Lib Dems had robust and similar manifestos to our own and we look forward to working with them on IPPC, cutting red tape and looking at the Water Management Bill among other issues.”
At the conference, Dale said the new government was largely a positive move for horticulture. He alleged the Labour government saw farming as “dispensable” and branded the ratio of food consumed to that produced in this country a “disgrace”.
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