During the meeting on Tuesday 7th April, NFU Cymru President Abi Reader and Deputy President Paul Williams were able to refer to information collected by the union from its members, farming across all sectors and areas of Wales, in recent days to highlight that there is significant disruption in the market, particularly in relation to the price and availability of fuel and fertiliser.
Food production worries
Abi and Paul highlighted to the Deputy First Minister that food production operates over long cycles running into many months and even years for some sectors, so whilst many businesses may be managing now it could be a few weeks or months before we see the true impact of the war. The officeholder team explained that cashflow is a concern for many farms in Wales with significant costs coming now for fuel and fertiliser at the end of the costly winter period. NFU Cymru was pleased to receive reassurances from the Deputy First Minister and his team that they are aware of the concerns of the industry and are in regular communication with their counterparts on a UK Government level and with the other devolved nations.
Impact on the industry
NFU Cymru President Abi Reader said:
“We are grateful to the Deputy First Minister for meeting with us today to discuss a real range of challenges facing Welsh farmers brought on by the war in the Middle East.
“It was important that we were able to talk through the impacts sector by sector so that we could give the Deputy First Minister a full picture as to how different parts of the industry are being affected. We stressed the importance of Welsh Government actively modelling the impact of the disruption on food production and the need for government to closely and actively monitor input markets to give confidence that they are operating transparently.
“Whilst this Senedd will shortly be dissolved and the Welsh Government enters the pre-election period, NFU Cymru will continues to have regular dialogue with both Welsh Government officials and the UK Government through the Wales Office and our team in Westminster.”