UK farming union leaders have called for long-term sustainable supply relationships to boost the current fragile confidence of farmers following a difficult summer.
During a meeting of the four UK farming union leaders, held in Cardiff on Thursday, union leaders from all countries reported that farmers across all sectors have had their confidence knocked in recent weeks due to various factors, including bad weather and high input costs.
NFU deputy president Meurig Raymond said: “It is the same wherever you are farming in the UK at present. Farmers have seen a much-needed general rise in prices during the past 12 months, across all commodities, which boosted the confidence of those that were considering walking away from the industry. However, farmers’ confidence has been knocked for six this summer due to the bad weather and rising costs.
“As representatives of farmers across the UK we are calling on the supply chain to deliver long-term confidence in the way of sustainable supply relationships before we see farmers turning their backs on production, which would naturally have a knock-on effect on production levels and see less home-produced food on supermarket shelves.”
The union leaders also agreed to continue their fight on behalf of all farmers across the country to reduce the amount of bureaucratic burden emerging from Brussels, including the pesticides directive.
Raymond said: “Basically these are regulations for regulation’s sake and are not based on sound science. We will all continue, through our contact with MEPs and the commission, to do everything within our powers to deliver a common sense alternative to these regulations.”
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