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(l-r) Welsh Secretary of State, Alun Cairns, FUW Younger Voice for Farming Committee Chairman Darren Williams, FUW Montgomeryshire County Chairman Mark Williams, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Andrea Leadsom and FUW President Glyn Roberts.[/caption]
Farmers’ Union of Wales officials have met with Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Andrea Leadsom, and Welsh Secretary of State, Alun Cairns, to discuss the future of agriculture post-Brexit.
FUW President Glyn Roberts said: “We welcomed the opportunity to highlight why #FarmingMatters and why it has to be top of the agenda in Brexit talks when we met Andrea Leadsom and Alun Cairns. It was a positive meeting and we further stressed that devolution should be respected within an overarching UK support framework in the context of making our withdrawal from the EU.”
The FUW firmly believes that irrespective of what trade deals are in place post-Brexit, within the UK, Welsh farmers will compete against their counterparts in other devolved regions. Therefore it is necessary to have a common policy across the UK which minimises unfair competition and market distortion.
Mr Roberts added that is was essential that such a framework was put in place to also secure and protect adequate long term funding for agriculture, whilst respecting devolved powers of agriculture.
“However, there has to be flexibility within that framework to allow devolved governments to make decisions which are appropriate for their regions.”