The Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW) is set to discuss the merits and drawbacks of limiting the amount of carbon credits that can be sold from Welsh land, carbon trading quotas and other approaches that might be applied in Wales.

During a recent meeting of the FUW Land Use and Parliamentary Committee, members expressed extreme concern that a large proportion of the carbon locked and sequestered in Welsh land could be sold to other countries and companies outside Wales, undermining the ability of Welsh agriculture or even Wales as a whole to become carbon neutral.

Delegates also highlighted ongoing concerns that Welsh farms are being purchased by companies from outside Wales in order to cash in on Wales’ carbon. Such concerns were recently reflected in a BBC report which revealed that twelve farms had been bought in mid Wales by companies outside of the country which aimed to largely plant trees on the land.

The committee agreed that a quota system should be introduced to reduce this risk, and it was agreed at a subsequent meeting of the FUW’s Presidential Policy Team that the pros and cons of such limits should be the subject of detailed discussion by all FUW Committee Chairmen and the Presidential Team.

The Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW) Animal Health & Welfare Committee held an emergency meeting on 28th July 2021 to discuss and form a response to the Farm Assured Welsh Livestock (FAWL) 2021 Standards consultation.

The consultation proposed the compulsory recording of antibiotic use data by the vet via an online calculator along with stricter environmental standards to name just a few.

The FUW made it clear that four weeks during one of the busiest times in the farming calendar was far from enough time for its twelve County Executive Committees to discuss the proposals and form a full, democratic response, and therefore requested for the deadline to be extended.

The majority of Welsh lamb and beef producers are FAWL assured and while it may be a voluntary scheme for many, it is in fact compulsory for the majority of dairy farmers’ milk contracts therefore the importance of changes to such standards must not be taken lightly.

The Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW) has highlighted the importance of supporting small and medium sized abattoirs in response to the Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) stakeholder consultation on early proposals for a future delivery model.

The consultation set out proposals on how the future delivery model should move away from the current standardised approach and towards a targeted and modernised way of working to improve overall compliance and the distribution of resources.

The FUW supported proposals on a tailored presence for Food Business Operators (FBOs) with varying levels of compliance, different rules for those supplying the domestic and/or export markets and the collection of more accurate data, however, concerns remained in regards to how such changes could affect food safety and increase costs for small and medium FBOs.

An All-Party Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare (APGAW) report recently revealed that there were 30,000 abattoirs in the UK in 1930 but in 2017, there were just 249, 56 of which were small red meat abattoirs.

In an attempt to offer a premium payment for UK wool producers, British Wool has recently launched an initiative which aims to trace wool from the farm gate through to the end product.

The closure of global wool markets due to the Covid-19 pandemic left British Wool with around 7 million kilograms (kgs) of unsold stock from a total 2019/20 clip of 27 million kgs. This meant that producers were paid an average of 17 pence per kg for the 2019/20 season clip, around 70% lower than the payment received in 2019.

While British Wool has managed to clear the stockpile from last year and prices have therefore started to recover, prices aren’t expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2022.

The new traceable wool scheme will allow consumers to understand the process wool must go through before reaching the shelf but also generate a premium price for eligible producers and aid the recovery of wool prices following the Covid-19 pandemic.