Farmers’ Union of Wales officials have described discussions with Senedd Member for Ogmore Huw Irranca-Davies as extremely positive.
Top of the agenda during Friday's meeting were local procurement and free school meals for children, and future agricultural policies.
Speaking after the meeting, FUW President Glyn Roberts said: “We had a very positive meeting with Huw Irranca-Davies and it was good to talk about the many issues and uncertainties facing our industry.”
Union officials highlighted the opportunities in procuring local food for the free school meals, which were announced as part of the Welsh Labour-Plaid Cymru agreement.
“Our farmers produce fantastic food all over Wales. It is nutritious and sustainably farmed and makes up essential food groups in our diets. For our children to flourish, learn and grow up to be healthy, strong adults, their diet is important. Not only is learning on an empty stomach difficult, our children also deserve the best of nutrition.
“Welsh food can deliver on the nutrition side of things and the free school meals will ensure that our children don’t go hungry. So there is a great opportunity for the Welsh Government to make inroads into procuring local food and supporting our industry - not just in schools but in hospitals, care homes and at local Government level,” said the Union President.
Mr Roberts added that sourcing food locally also needed to be considered in a climate change sense. He said: “The environment and climate change are at the forefront of all our minds when it comes to food production. Farms here in Wales produce environmentally friendly and sustainable food and we would be doing the industry an injustice, if despite their efforts to look after the environment and produce food, our children were fed food from countries with lower animal health and welfare and environmental standards.
"Future support payments were also discussed and we took the opportunity to highlight the need for payment capping and some form of redistributive payment to be retained, alongside a robust active farmer rule to ensure the prosperity of Wales' family farms," added Mr Roberts.