The Farmers’ Union of Wales has written to congratulate the newly appointed UK Prime Minister, Liz Truss, and set out the immediate and longer term concerns for Welsh agriculture and rural areas.
FUW President Glyn Roberts wrote to Liz Truss on behalf of the FUW congratulating her on a successful campaign and on having been appointed as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
The UK as a whole is facing turbulent times and while the next few years will be challenging for the UK government to navigate, the FUW believes that the future of the food and farming industry and those family farms which are at its heart must play a central role in tackling immediate and longer term challenges for the country.
Mr Roberts highlights in his letter that while many key agricultural policy decisions are devolved to Wales, the UK Government remains in control of a number of critical areas which continue to directly and indirectly affect Welsh agriculture and rural areas.
At the Royal Welsh Show in July, the FUW launched a five point plan which it believes should be implemented to tackle impacts of the Ukraine war and other factors on farmers, food producers and consumers. Of those five points, four of them fall entirely or partially within the remit of the UK Government.
The letter emphasises the central role that renewable energy production on farms must play in terms of tackling the UK’s energy security crisis, stating that the UK Government should incentivise on-farm renewable energy production in order to reduce the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels and imported energy and provide financial support for critical industries to ensure that farmers are placed on an equal footing with farmers in the EU.
Mr Roberts also highlights the FUW’s belief that the UK Government must seek to reset international trade policy such that food security is placed at the heart of policymaking, and that restoring good relations with the UK’s nearest neighbouring countries when it comes to food and energy security must be inherent to this. This again is part of the FUW’s five point plan.
It is also essential that Wales’ food and farming sectors must be underpinned in future by the restoration of the annual budget the Welsh Government receives for agriculture from the UK Treasury, as was promised in the 2019 UK Conservative Party Manifesto.
These are just some of the core concerns and FUW is committed to working with the new Prime Minister and UK Government in terms of seeking to tackle the major challenges that lie ahead.