Somerset --
I am delighted that at last we appear to have a ministerial team at Defra which understands the farming industry and appreciates the huge number of major challenges under which farmers are currently operating.
It's also encouraging, amid all the positive signs that a start is at last being made on sweeping away pointless bureaucracy, that something of a shake-up is on the way for Natural England, which has been responsible for creating so many difficulties for so many farmers I know. But Natural England is not the only organisation which needs to be shaken: so, too, does EBLEX, which purports to be promoting English beef and lamb with the aid of the handsome levies it extracts from British farmers.
EBLEX clearly has a problem in that it is trying to serve two masters: farmers on the one hand and meat processors and the rest of the supply chain on the other. And currently it seems to be working more in the interests of the meat trade.
At a time of the year when we could hope to see some welcome extra income in the livestock sector the lamb market has been in meltdown, with prices collapsing by more than £20 a head in recent weeks. This is partly because the European market – where times are if anything tougher than they are here – has slumped. The vigorous demand we saw for British lamb for most of last year has suddenly tailed off, despite a more or less favourable exchange rate. Compounding the problem has been the reappearance of New Zealand lamb, now being widely sold in supermarkets.
But Europe isn't the world. Where, more to the point, is the branding for South West Beef and Lamb, which farmers fought so hard for but which the meat trade and the supermarkets fought so vigorously against?
Nowhere to be seen. And that's precisely how the meat trade likes it. No local branding, no premium prices to pay.
All we see from EBLEX is an endless stream of directives telling us how to improve our businesses. We don't need any of them. It is in our interests to run our businesses as efficiently as we possibly can. We can produce the goods quite adequately without any input from expensive 'advisors': all EBLEX has to do is promote them. Perhaps 2013 will be the year it finally discovers there is life beyond Europe. Reported by This is 3 hours ago.
I am delighted that at last we appear to have a ministerial team at Defra which understands the farming industry and appreciates the huge number of major challenges under which farmers are currently operating.
It's also encouraging, amid all the positive signs that a start is at last being made on sweeping away pointless bureaucracy, that something of a shake-up is on the way for Natural England, which has been responsible for creating so many difficulties for so many farmers I know. But Natural England is not the only organisation which needs to be shaken: so, too, does EBLEX, which purports to be promoting English beef and lamb with the aid of the handsome levies it extracts from British farmers.
EBLEX clearly has a problem in that it is trying to serve two masters: farmers on the one hand and meat processors and the rest of the supply chain on the other. And currently it seems to be working more in the interests of the meat trade.
At a time of the year when we could hope to see some welcome extra income in the livestock sector the lamb market has been in meltdown, with prices collapsing by more than £20 a head in recent weeks. This is partly because the European market – where times are if anything tougher than they are here – has slumped. The vigorous demand we saw for British lamb for most of last year has suddenly tailed off, despite a more or less favourable exchange rate. Compounding the problem has been the reappearance of New Zealand lamb, now being widely sold in supermarkets.
But Europe isn't the world. Where, more to the point, is the branding for South West Beef and Lamb, which farmers fought so hard for but which the meat trade and the supermarkets fought so vigorously against?
Nowhere to be seen. And that's precisely how the meat trade likes it. No local branding, no premium prices to pay.
All we see from EBLEX is an endless stream of directives telling us how to improve our businesses. We don't need any of them. It is in our interests to run our businesses as efficiently as we possibly can. We can produce the goods quite adequately without any input from expensive 'advisors': all EBLEX has to do is promote them. Perhaps 2013 will be the year it finally discovers there is life beyond Europe. Reported by This is 3 hours ago.