What is your farming and NFU background?

I farm carrots, parsnips, swede, potatoes and arable in East Yorkshire as managing director of MH Poskitt Ltd. I am Farmers Weekly Farmer of the Year and I was county chairman of the NFU for a two-year term until the AGM earlier this year.

What are the biggest issues facing horticulture and potato growers in the UK?

The biggest issue has got to be the weather. It is getting more challenging and affecting crop availability. It’s also very hard to incentivise growers when prices paid to them are so low while there is a strong commodity market. It is different for glasshouse growers, but for field-scale vegetable growers, there are other options.

If you look at the wheat futures market, it was paying £165 a tonne in April last year and this week it is £201.50. The risks in growing vegetables are massive compared to growing wheat and it is not easy to compensate for that risk. That is one of the reasons why there are no new, younger growers coming into the sector. Land values to purchase or rent are high and one of the biggest challenges is to get prices paid to vegetable growers back up again.

What can you do to meet these variouschallenges?

The NFU’s Catalyst for Change document forms the basis of negotiations between buyers and producers. We are not expecting everyone to sign up to it, as retailers like to differentiate, but it is there to serve as a guideline for a good relationship between growers and customers. What is needed are longer-term, profitable deals with the big retailers and foodservice operators. We need to encourage the big retailers and foodservice operators to support growers or they will lose those growers because the risk is just too high for them to keep growing and investing. The whole game has risen in agriculture, but that is just not happening in horticulture. Over the next few months we will try and meet with one or two retailers. The NFU has also got to work hard on CAP reform or we will end up with too much greening and we have to fight a lot of issues with the Environment Agency.

What about market outlets beyond the major retailers?

The foodservice market is strong and the wholesale market definitely has its place. It is small in volume, but I don’t see it shrinking away any further. The horsemeat scandal has given British agriculture a competitive edge. Talking to a lot of people outside horticulture, they say they are not eating as many ready meals any more and there has definitely been a move in the marketplace towards more locally sourced produce. There are also more people purchasing ingredients to cook from scratch. We will have to see whether it is just a fashion or whether it will last.

How do you view the supply chain?

Farmers and growers have got to get back to what they are good at and that is growing food for people to eat. There are only two parts of the chain that are vital and they are the grower and consumer. All the rest are secondary. The chain has become far too complex. We need just the farmer, packer and retailer if we are to have better quality and reduced costs. —