Farm leaders set out position to Lords on Brexit

British farmers have a great opportunity to increase the country’s levels of food self-sufficiency post Brexit, but only if the policy framework is right.

Giving evidence in the House of Lords on Wednesday (8 February), NFU vice-president Guy Smith said the prime minister’s timetable for negotiating Brexit was “extremely ambitious”, and that in itself presented dangers.

There was a worry the whole thing would be rushed through and much of current EU regulation would be simply “copied and pasted” into UK law.

See also: Seize Brexit chance to improve agriculture, peers told

“Farmers are very worried that they will get all of the regulation and all the restraints, but none of the benefits [of EU farm support],” he told the House of Lords EU Energy and Environment sub-committee.

What they needed post-2019 was a transition, not a “big bang”, he added.

Trade deals

Mr Smith was also concerned by the number of trade deals that need to be thrashed out in a relatively short space of time.

While he was reluctant to describe agriculture as a “special case”, it was certainly “peculiar” due to issues such as animal welfare.

Government negotiators needed to be mindful of that when engaged in trade talks.

Mr Smith said there was no reason the UK could not improve self-sufficiency in food, but only if farming was given the right kind of support, not too much regulation, access to EU migrant labour and protection from substandard, oversubsidised imports.

Domestic support

On future domestic support, Mr Smith said it was important to maintain a focus on food production, rather than placing too much emphasis on agri-environment schemes.

He did not want to see any return to production-linked support, such as headage payments.

But neither could the supply chain be relied upon to deliver a sustainable return for farm businesses.

“We are not frightened of new ideas, and many of my younger members would push me to accept a very different policy,” he added.

“It may be that we shift from support payments to so-called competitive measures, giving farmers grants to invest in new technology.”

Market failure

Wesley Aston, chief executive of the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU), agreed it was critical policymakers understood the importance of income support.

“Over the past 20 years, there have only been three years when the total income from farming in Northern Ireland was actually greater than the level of direct support,” he told the committee.

“Because of the market failure, there has to be some kind of support given.”

The direction of change under the CAP had been away from production support towards environmental schemes.

The UFU wanted to reconnect support to producing high-quality food.

Mr Aston added that, while the country was less than self-sufficient in food, Brexit did present opportunities to displace imported food, though the aim should also be to maintain as much access as possible to overseas markets, especially for the so-called “fifth-quarter”.