Farmers, industry leaders and market experts gathered at the Royal Welsh Showground in Llanelwedd on Tuesday, February 5 for the inaugural NFU Cymru Welsh Red Meat Sector in a Global Marketplace Summit.
The summit saw experts from the red meat supply chain, Welsh farming industry and the processing, marketing, retail and food service sectors analysing the opportunities that exist to promote Welsh produce to the wider world, as well as the potential challenges posed by Brexit.
NFU Cymru Livestock Board Chairman Wyn Evans opened the event by warning that the continued threat of the UK crashing out of the EU without a deal leaves the sector in a ‘perilous position’ ahead of Brexit.
He said: “In these next few weeks my family, like many thousands of others across Wales, will be preparing for and entering the busiest time in our farming calendar, with the arrival of lambs whose eventual sale would usually make up a sizeable part of our farm income. But as we spend our days and nights in the lambing shed and out in the fields, we do this in the dark not knowing what markets will be open for these lambs later this year.
“My real fear is that we will see the clock run down and we will depart the EU without having secured a trade deal. For NFU Cymru a ‘No deal’ scenario is completely unacceptable. Under such a scenario we would see very significant WTO tariff rates applied to our exports, immediately pricing us out of our nearest and most valuable export market. In addition, as a third country we would face significant regulatory barriers when exporting to the EU, further eroding our competitive position.
“These concerns are coupled with Government continuing to veer away from any form of commitment to protect our high standards within the UK Agriculture Bill. Welsh farmers hold very real fears that those in Westminster whose desire is to secure a quick trade deal will do so at the expense of Welsh agriculture by opening our markets to produce that falls well short of the high welfare, food safety and environmental standards exercised here in Wales.
“Our industry produces over 65,000 tons of sheep meat and around 48,000 tons of beef, much of which commands PGI status, and delivers an annual turnover of £1.3 billion. A scenario that puts the future of this great and iconic Welsh industry in jeopardy must not be realised.”
Topics for discussion at the NFU Cymru event included ‘Setting the scene’, ‘Processors and retailers’ perspective’, ‘Promoting and selling our product’ and ‘Preparing for change’. External contributors at the event included speakers from Kantar World Panel, the British Meat Processors Association, Celtic Pride, Meat Promotion Wales/HCC and Welsh Lamb and Beef Producers.