Farmers sign up for grassroots gear change

[caption id="attachment_5666" align="aligncenter" width="300"]HCC met with FUW standing committee chairmen and county chairmen in Aberystwyth. HCC met with FUW standing committee chairmen and county chairmen in Aberystwyth.[/caption]

 

HCC will devise an additional grassroots communications programme to help further convey to farmers the wide ranging and detailed marketing and industry development work it undertakes throughout Wales after meeting with producers at Aberystwyth on Tuesday.

The meeting at HCC’s offices, which was attended by FUW standing committee chairmen and county chairmen, focused on a way in which the two organisations can better work together for industry gain. They were brought up to date with HCC’s current campaigns and explored ways to enlist further farmer support for helping to promote market leading Welsh Lamb products.

Their ideas will be consolidated into an ambitious county-by-county campaign to allow farmer meetings direct access to latest information, initiatives and campaigns as HCC steps up its supply chain support in the coming months.

“Every farmer, indeed, every member of the red meat supply chain in Wales, has a part to play in the coming months if we are to maximise impacts for the marketing and development work that HCC does on their behalf,” said Dai Davies, HCC Chairman.

“There is an army of agricultural ambassadors out there and HCC has to tap into the availability and willingness of farmers at county level and our meeting yesterday came up with several really good ideas for spreading the good word.

“Our team will now consolidate these thoughts into an exciting new extension to our work at grassroots level which will give farmers instant access to a wide variety of HCC actions, information and key facts in an easily digestible form,” said Mr. Davies

FUW president Glyn Roberts said: “There are many things that influence the price we get paid for our lamb such as exchange rates, consumer behaviour and of course foreign imports. And whilst we don’t have the power to directly influence market prices or exchange rates, we can take active steps to support our industry by sourcing our food locally at all levels and exploring other markets for our prime product,” added Mr Roberts.

“It is important that we all work together if we want to see the industry progress and initiatives such as the Welsh Lamb roadshow, which we will be joining HCC for, are a great starting point.”