THE Farmers’ Union of Wales today (Thursday October 1) highlighted key concerns about the future of the Welsh dairy industry during an official inquiry by the National Assembly’s rural development sub committee.
During the evidence session, FUW dairy committee chairman Eifion Huws stressed the need for farmers to receive a fairer share of the prices paid by consumers for dairy products, and drew attention to the predicted impact of milk quota abolition on Welsh dairy farm incomes.
Speaking afterwards, Mr Huws said: “The past 18 months has seen the publication of three detailed analyses of the impact for Wales, the UK, and other EU regions of quota abolition.
“Each one of those predicts a fall in Welsh farmgate milk prices and a fall in Welsh milk production as a result of quota abolition.
We are already experiencing the lowest production levels in four decades, and prices that are unsustainable. As a union standing for the protection of Welsh family farms, we cannot support changes to the EU milk regime that will reduce farm incomes and make matters worse.”
Mr Huws was referring to Defra’s 2008 report “Phasing out Milk Quotas in the EU”, the Joint Research Centre’s August 2009 paper “Regional Economic Analysis of Milk Quota Reform in the EU”, and the recently published “Impact of HM Treasury/Defra’s Vision for the Common Agricultural Policy on Agriculture in Wales”, all of which predict significant decreases in farmgate prices and milk production as a result of the abolition of the quota regime.
During the evidence session, the FUW slammed Defra’s “Vision for the Common Agricultural Policy”, describing it as a vision of the destruction of the UK agricultural industry.
“The document that details the impact of Defra’s ‘vision’ makes stark predictions for all key Welsh agricultural sectors,” said Mr Huws.
“Not only does it predict a fall in Welsh dairy incomes if Defra’s intentions became EU policy; it also predicts falls in incomes for the beef and sheep sectors that would decimate Welsh agriculture as a whole and tear the backbone out of rural Wales.
“There is now overwhelming evidence to support the FUW’s longstanding belief that abolition of milk quota and Defra’s ‘vision’ for the CAP is against the best interests of Wales, and I therefore trust that the rural development sub committee will take that evidence into account in making any recommendations to the Welsh Assembly Government.”