SCOTTISH farming has called on Europe to help sort out the current Brexit difficulties between them, particularly over transportation and seed potatoes, for the good of all.
The National Farmers Union Scotland wrapped up its annual conference, conducted online this year, in upbeat mood about the opportunities ahead while addressing the obstacles that Brexit has brought.
Outgoing NFU Scotland president Andrew McCornick said Scottish farming and crofting stands on the edge of the most significant change in generations.
He pinpointed Brexit, the impact of Covid-19, the challenge of climate change and significant changes in agricultural policy from 2025 as the major challenges.
McCornick said: “We could bemoan the fact that we have left Europe, or we can look for the opportunities for the global country we have now become.
“Stepping away from half a century under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) allows us to move to a smarter way of delivering for our industry, supporting the environment, biodiversity, climate change, and delivering our high standards of food production.
“Stepping away from rewarding people for occupying land and having to meet the bureaucratic requirements of a CAP formulated as a compromise from the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean, to a future policy that delivers on actively farmed and managed land in Scotland, for Scotland.
“NFU Scotland has been crystal clear. Our industry is one that can change, and will change, to meet public aspirations with an upbeat forward-looking mindset.
“This outlook will empower our farmers and crofters and drive us forward to the holy grail of sustainable profit, done in parallel with tackling climate change and delivering affordable healthy food which the public expect as a return for their investment in support for our industry.
“A vibrant industry that will underpin upstream and downstream suppliers and processors and be the cornerstone of thousands of productive businesses in our rural and national economy.
“The cards are stacked in our favour. We can deliver on so many fronts provided policy, support and opportunities are formulated coherently and speedily.’’
That challenge has now been taken up by his successor Martin Kennedy, whose immediate priority is to give voice to his members’ pressing concerns on transportation and exports.
He said: “We’ve got serious issues with Brexit still with seed potatoes which we’ll need to sort out very, very quickly, by the end of February or buyers may go elsewhere and that is a market which is lost and it might not be easy to recover again.
“But in terms of opportunities ahead of us then we don’t have that same sort of European bureaucracy on top of us.
“We were seriously worried about tariff barriers. They would have been massively devastating but we don’t have the friction-free access that we were looking for, particularly in the seed potato industry, that’s really been heavily affected.
“As are some vegetables and some plants as well that can’t export because of the SPS (sanitary and phytosanitary) regulations and do not have equivalence recognised by the EU. Whether that’s game playing by the EU because of Brexit and we’ve left well, we don’t really know. But if it is we have to stamp that out. We can’t have that because it’s clear there is an equivalence there for seed potatoes and that’s why there is such a high demand for them in Europe.
“The same applies to groupage and haulage when you’ve got the amounts of stamps and verifications and certification that’s needed.
“We’re actually seeing lorries going one-way empty now to avoid that so that’s a cost to industry as well.’’
The new president remains optimistic, though, about Scottish farming meeting the challenges.
The Highland Perthshire tenant farmer said: “Our challenge always is to maintain food production at the same time as meeting climate change and environment and biodiversity targets as well.
“I think where we are on this from a Scottish perspective, we’re actually well-placed. I sometimes think we don’t get the recognition how well-placed we are already globally.
“That doesn’t mean to say that we can’t do more when it comes to making people aware of the produce, the high environmental and animal welfare standards.
“There are opportunities here to market our product better. I think that Covid has been a big lesson in that because people have become more aware of where food comes from. I would like to see food production and the environment be put on the national school curriculum.
“That gives people a bit more unbiased information because there are too many nonsense facts being bandied about just now.”
The new president will continue to push the importance of the supply chain in food production to Scotland’s interests.
He concluded: “If we get the future agricultural policy that is correct and fit for Scotland, and also the education side, then that will have an effect on the supply chain. We need to be very careful that agriculture is in a profitable situation.
“That is absolutely key because we can’t be in the green if we’re in the red.’’
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