During the meeting on Tuesday 14 April, NFU Cymru President Abi Reader and Deputy President Paul Williams presented the Minister with an overview of data collected by the union’s members representative of farming across all sectors and regions of Wales.
Significant disruption
Abi and Paul stressed that the significant disruption in the market over the last month, especially in the price and availability of fuel and fertiliser, may not be fully understood for a few weeks or months.
They emphasised that behavioural and business choices made now will not be realised until later in the year and that the decisions made today will impact further down the line in terms of production on farm.
Serious concern
The officeholder team told the Minister that cashflow is a very serious concern for many farms in Wales, not least caused by rising prices but also by a lack of certainty on what farmers will be asked to pay for inputs upon delivery.
NFU Cymru President Abi Reader said:
“With the Wales Office acting as our link into the heart of the UK Government, we were pleased to have the opportunity to meet with the Minister to provide a picture of the challenges our farmers are dealing with as a result of the impact of the war in the Middle East.
We stressed the importance of continued regular dialogue between NFU Cymru and the Wales Office, for UK Government to closely and actively monitor input markets to give confidence that they are operating transparently and the need to model the impact that the conflict is having on domestic food production with a view to taking positive to support and underpin our ability to produce affordable food for the nation.”
