[caption id="attachment_5110" align="aligncenter" width="173"] Newtown-based area officer David Lush receives the FUW’s annual business award for best managed portfolio in 2014[/caption]

The insurance arm of the Farmers’ Union of Wales has today appointed former FUW Montgomeryshire area officer David Lush to the position of sales manager within FUW Insurance Services.

“David has been a dedicated and successful employee here at the FUW for the last ten years and has almost doubled his GPI in that time. As you can imagine, competition for this role has been fierce and there were applications from several highly qualified candidates, but it was felt that David’s experience and previous achievements set him apart from the competition,” said FUW Insurance Services managing director Mark Roberts.

Prior to joining the union, David worked as the operations manager at Entrepreneur Action where he built a division of business advisers in support of the Welsh Government’s business support programme, he also held the role of area director at Barclays in Kent where he managed 14 senior managers and 37 support staff, and area manager for Barclays in Mid Wales where he managed 35 staff across 3 sites who specialised in the small and medium-sized enterprises market.

“On assuming the role of sales manager David will oversee the area officers’ we already have in place and will also be responsible for training our new starters. He will also assist me in arranging and approving new deals and schemes with our existing insurer partners and potential new partners,” added Mr Roberts.

[caption id="attachment_5107" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Welcoming Mari to the FUW team are (l-r) FUW president Emyr Jones, FUW Denbighshire county chairman John Roberts, FUW Flintshire county chairman Tim Faire and FUW stalwart and former Denbighshire county executive officer Meurig Voyle.[/caption]

A farmers daughter from Ruthin has been appointed as the new Farmers' Union of Wales county executive officer for Denbighshire and Flintshire.

Mari Dafydd Jones, 25, who commenced her role on Tuesday March 17 said: "I grew up on a farm not far from Ruthin and my father has always been a member of the FUW, he farms 250 sheep and 140 store cattle.  I now live on a farm in Nantglyn with my partner Arfon, who has had the pleasure of taking over the family farm from his grandparents."

In her previous role as European funding officer for Denbighshire County Council, Mari was responsible for the monitoring of all European Funded projects within the county and also to assist community groups and departments within the council to secure funding for their projects.

Mari and her partner Arfon currently farm around 100 store cattle which they buy in as calves and are hoping to expand over the next year.

"One of the responsibilities I have within the business and something I really enjoy is to buy in the calves and you will no doubt be seeing me regularly at the farmers markets buying calves.

"I have always wanted to work within the agricultural industry and now I have been given the opportunity to do so which I am very grateful for. The next few years are going to be very exciting and interesting for the industry and I hope as an enthusiastic and passionate young farmer I can make a difference," added Ms Jones.

Tomorrow sees dairy producers in Wales waking up to the abolition of the European quota system that has operated to limit EU milk production for 30 years.

“While Britain remains under quota, the potential addition of more production to the EU milk glut has led the FUW to repeatedly express concern about further increases in price volatility in an already saturated marketplace,” said FUW senior policy officer Dr Hazel Wright. 

Several European countries, such as Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands are already bursting at their quota seams and seem well placed to take advantage of a deregulated production system. 

Although several Northern European countries have their own production constraints – such as the environmental regulations in the Netherlands – it would seem that an increase in EU milk production is all but inevitable. 

Last month, several EU Member States urged the European Commission to guarantee that the post quota milk market will be closely and properly monitored in order to ensure that volatility is not further increased. 

“The union recognises the role of the Milk Market Observatory in monitoring the market and hopes that it will also have an effective role in offering mitigation measures where needed. However, in a quota-less system it becomes much more difficult to justify emergency intervention buying at times when the sector needs desperate support, which is an added concern for the FUW,” added Dr Wright.

Numerous studies have attempted to predict volumes and prices in a post-quota market.  The most concerning post-quota price predictions cite milk price drops to around four pence per litre and, whilst such predictions are extreme, it is impossible to imagine any producer being able to stay in business if prices fell to such a low, even for a short period.

Dr Wright further said that the FUW has been firmly against quota abolition since the idea was mooted almost a decade ago and the warnings and concerns expressed by the union on the implications of abolishing milk quotas are no April fool’s joke.

“Given such warnings, it is imperative that processors work to prevent the type of boom and bust price volatility which could follow quota abolition. Indeed, it is essential that transparency and fairness in the dairy supply chain is improved in order to allow producers and processors to be well placed to  maximise those mainstream and added-value opportunities that are set to arise in the export market following future growth in the demand for dairy products,” she added. 

The Welsh dairy sector is an innovative and efficient sector which produces high quality dairy products from high welfare cows and it is therefore imperative that producers in Wales are able to take advantage of such markets rather than losing them to our European competitors. 

The Farmers’ Union of Wales 2015 general election manifesto has highlighted the all-to-often overlooked central role agriculture plays in both rural and urban economies.

In his introduction to the manifesto, launched today (Monday March 30), FUW president Emyr Jones says: “The impact of the recession on our economy as a whole has been severe, but there can be no doubt that in rural Britain and many of our urban areas the impact has been buffered by the core role agriculture has played in generating income for communities the length and breadth of the UK.”

Mr Jones described agriculture as the powerhouse of the rural economy, generating billions of pounds which benefit a host of industries including many not directly associated with agriculture.

“Go through the accounts of any farm and you will see the incredible contribution made to other businesses - whether to industries directly associated with agriculture such as feed merchants, or those without such direct links such as builders, plumbers and electricians.

“Yet the importance of agriculture is all-to-often ignored, and as the strengthening Sterling-Euro exchange rate has undermined agriculture and other industries we have seen the benefits of a recovering economy being undermined not only in rural towns and villages, but also in those areas where manufacturing for export plays a key part in the local economy – impacts which would be far worse were it not for lower fuel prices,” added Mr Jones.

Mr Jones further said that for the dairy sector in particular, such pressures had been exacerbated by the knock-on effect of the Russian embargo on EU food, and that this came as a timely reminder in an uncertain world that controlling the movement and availability of food is a weapon used by leaders since time immemorial, to bargain, threaten and compel opponents.

“As such, the role farming plays in maintaining our natural environment and rural communities, coupled with the importance of maintaining and strengthening those political frameworks which protect our food security, mean agriculture, and in particular the family farm, should be high up the agenda for any future Government.”

Mr Jones said membership of the European Union and a fair Common Agricultural Policy were key to exports and the economic viability of rural communities.

“We all share huge frustrations with the EU, but the FUW remains convinced that leaving the common market or opting out of the CAP following a renegotiation of powers would be devastating for agriculture and our rural communities.

“If we were to lose our export markets and CAP funding it is difficult to imagine how our agricultural sectors and rural communities would avoid being plunged into abject poverty,” he added.

Mr Jones said that while advances in the devolution process have reduced the number of Welsh agricultural issues over which Members of Parliament have a direct influence, there remain numerous overarching UK policies that have a direct impact on Welsh communities, and the FUW’s concerns and aspirations regarding the most significant of these are highlighted in the manifesto.

“For the period of the next Parliament and beyond the FUW is committed to lobbying all those in Westminster to ensure that agriculture and family farms receive the attention and respect that they warrant,” said Mr Jones.

FUW Election Manifesto 2015

As farmers in Wales start to receive their Single Application Form packs through the post, the Farmers’ Union of Wales is advising farmers to give the Rural Payments Wales (RPW) online system a try if they are in a position to do so.

Speaking days after DEFRA pulled the plug on the English online application process due to severe technical problems, FUW president Emyr Jones described the RPW online single application system as working exceptionally well under the circumstances.

“Obviously the online system is not for everyone, and there is still a lamentable lack of broadband availability in some areas, but we would advise all those who are in a position to use the system to do so.

“As is inevitable, there have been some teething problems with RPW online, but on the whole it is working exceptionally well, and the bulk of problems are due to the complexity of the underlying EU regulations rather than the system itself,” said Mr Jones.

Mr Jones said that using the online system actually made it easier to deal with those complex EU regulations, as important calculations were performed automatically when the system was used.

“The online system also reduces the risk of costly errors, for example by issuing automatic warnings – something which is not possible with a paper form,” added Mr Jones.

He further added that FUW staff had identified a number of issues with the online system and that the union was in constant communication with Welsh government staff in order to try and resolve these. However, he described those issues as ‘minor’ in the grander scale of things compared with the risks of making errors on the paper form.

Mr Jones also highlighted the hard work FUW staff were undertaking in order to assist members with their online applications.

“Our staff have been working exceptionally hard on members’ SAFs for a number of weeks, and we are indebted to them for this,” he said.

With regard to the possibility of extending the May 15 SAF deadline by a month – a concession already awarded in a number of regions, including England – Mr Jones said the FUW was in ongoing discussions with government and would be raising the issue in a meeting with Deputy Minister Rebecca Evans over the coming days.

“Given the complexity of the forms and pressures on the industry at this time, we certainly feel it would be pragmatic to extend the SAF deadline, but this has to be weighed up against the impact of delaying form processing by a month and the effect this could have on cash flow from December onwards if payments are delayed as a consequence.

“The bottom line is that, where possible, farmers should try and get the forms done as soon as possible, but given the busy time of year and the complexity of the forms that is easier said than done,” added Mr Jones.

The Farmers’ Union of Wales has welcomed the Chancellor’s budget announcement that farmers will be allowed to average their earnings over a five-year period. 

“Being able to average your earnings will smooth the potential wide variations from year to year and allow for better tax planning in the farming industry,” said FUW director of finance David Parker. 

“Farmers are often subjected to volatile market prices and as such their profits fluctuate accordingly. The weather and disease outbreaks are also not to be underestimated when it comes down to how much each farmer earns. The previous provision of averaging your earnings has been extended from two to five years and for this we must congratulate the Chancellor as it will prove immensely helpful to the industry,” added Mr Parker. 

The Union was also pleased to see no further increases in fuel duty.  

“An increase in fuel duty would have had a direct impact on the cost of production at a time when the country needs business to flourish,” added Mr Parker.