Farming sets out how policy should look post-Brexit

• See Views from farmers

Farm policy proposals being drawn up separately by the NFU, CLA and TFA are at different stages. But there is a growing realisation that the industry will secure the best deal from government if it works together, rather than pulling in different directions.

All three organisations believe a post-Brexit farm policy must lay the foundations for a more competitive and sustainable agricultural sector. This is a big issue: UK farmers are less productive than their counterparts in the Netherlands, France and the US.

At the same time, the CLA says a new policy must enable those at the bottom to improve their performance and productivity.

UK agriculture is extremely diverse, it points out, with the top 10% of UK farmers twice as productive as the bottom 10%.

The TFA’s proposals are perhaps most advanced. It published its post-Brexit policy in April and updated it after the referendum. TFA chief executive George Dunn said: “It is vital to work together as one industry or else we will be at the mercy of many other competing interests.”

Earlier this month, the NFU published a list of seven principles it said must shape post-Brexit domestic farm policy in England and Wales.

These include continued market access, support on par with EU farmers, and a ban on imports produced to lower standards than in the UK.

The union said it would consult its members before publishing a more detailed policy document in early autumn.

But the government is under pressure to start negotiating the UK’s exit from the EU much sooner following this week’s appointment of Theresa May as prime minister.

A coalition of farm groups could have wider benefits too, and make it easier for farm leaders to deal with the hundreds of civil servants who will be tasked with drawing up a new farm policy.

Any new policy is also likely to involve government ministers beyond Defra.

Although Defra is responsible for food and farming policy, other policies that impact on farmers – including climate change, planning and business – are driven by other government departments.

View 1: Defra’s ability to manage Brexit

Beef and sheep farmer Andrew Foulds voiced concern about the government’s ability to manage the Brexit process in a way that benefits growers and livestock producers.

“One thing that really worries me above all else is that we’ve got to deal with Defra, which is a government department in a state of complete disarray – it worries me to death,” said Mr Foulds, who farms near Mildenhall, Suffolk.

Defra and its agencies are currently responsible for overseeing the annual distribution of some £3.7bn from the EU into the rural economy. But the department faces a battle to convince the Treasury that the same amount of money must keep flowing post-Brexit.

All farmers had experienced problems in one way or another with three Defra agencies – the Rural Payments Agency, Natural England or the Environment Agency – said Mr Foulds, who has built up a successful business supplying lamb to a major retailer.

“I worry that Defra has to look at itself and re-examine how it operates,” he added. “It has a clean blackboard and it needs to look exactly at what it is doing and how it works – it doesn’t matter whether it is a new minister running it or Liz Truss – they know they are in a mess.”

View 2: Withdrawal pain could be eased with subsidy

Producers are being urged to co-operate more closely with one another to reduce business costs amid the looming prospect of fewer subsidies.

That could be made easier with an organisation to support and direct agricultural co-operatives post-Brexit, suggested Clarke Willis, chief executive of Anglia Farmers – one of the UK’s biggest farmer-owned producer groups, with an annual turnover of £247.4m.

There was no longer a Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives, said Mr Willis. And although 48 of the top 100 UK co-operatives were agricultural, only five were members of Cooperatives UK – an organisation that was “very left-leaning in terms of its thought process”.

Mr Willis added: “There is one thing from a Brexit point of view that I think we need, and that is a solid group to look at producer organisations – because that is European legislation – and also the whole [co-operative] infrastructure.”

UK retailers faced a major challenge securing consistency of supply from farmers – something New Zealand lamb producers had achieved to great effect by working together.

“We need a structure and an organisation to put that in place,” said Mr Willis.

View 3: Brexit vote spells uncertainty for labour

The decision to leave the EU is already causing uncertainty for overseas workers on UK farms, with many unsure how long they will remain in the country.

Cambridgeshire farmer James Peck said: “I have already got a problem with labour. I’ve got six people who are employed from outside England and they have already said to me that they will perhaps have to go home in two years.

“Whether that is true or not, it is what they are thinking,” said Mr Peck, managing director of PX Farms, Dry Drayton. “That represents more than 50% of my farming workforce who are perhaps planning to go home.”

In devising a post-Brexit farm policy, industry leaders and the government should consider the sort of agricultural sector they wanted to see in a decade.

They should then work backwards to ensure the right policies were put in place now to achieve it. The visa application process for overseas workers was often too long, said Mr Peck.

For example, an Australian who wanted to work in the UK during harvest was told he would have to wait eight weeks for a visa – by which time harvest would be over. “We need a quicker process.”

View 4: Compete on quality and not on price

Continued access to export markets is “absolutely vital” for UK pig producers, who should strive to compete on quality rather than price, says an award-winning farmer.

“As a pig producer, I can’t add to the subsidy debate,” said Alastair Butler of Suffolk-based Blythburgh Free Range Pork.

“But exports are vital to us because we have to find a market for those parts of the pig carcass that UK consumers don’t want to eat.”

About half of all UK pig production was from outdoor herds, said Mr Butler, whose father Jimmy is a former Farmers Weekly Pig Farmer of the Year.

“Outdoor production gives the UK industry a unique selling point abroad and adds to the strength of the market,” he added.

There was also a huge opportunity to promote the UK’s island advantage, which meant the country had a natural barrier from the rest of the world when it came to biosecurity and protection from diseases such as African swine fever and porcine enterovirus.

Although it was difficult to compete on price, these attributes meant UK pig producers could compete on quality – and command a premium both at home and abroad, said Mr Butler.

“We can’t compete with cheap food, so we have to find something to sell on.”