Good morning, Minister Fairlie, Ladies and Gentlemen, and welcome to our Autumn conference 2024 in this magnificent pavilion.
As John says we’ve got a packed agenda today and the quality of speakers we have I’m sure will give us all a lot to think about. The focus of this year’s conference is on how our industry can and should take proper credit for the world leading green credentials it carries throughout the production of Scottish food and drink.
As an industry we can no longer afford to see others take the credit for our efforts. Whether that’s green washing with big business buying into our land and credits with no scruples and more importantly not actually doing anything meaningful to reduce their own failings. Or even worse, watching on as so called environmentalists are forced to sell land to pay off debts accrued by purchasing other land for rewilding using tax payers money. Incredible.
This ‘rewilding’ initiative that seems to be the in thing to do right now, once again is driven by those who,
a. Have absolutely no business sense whatsoever.
b. Have no idea of the unintended consequences further down the track.
c. Do not understand what makes rural and remote communities thrive.
This is exactly why we need to be very protective of our green credentials, many of which are already there in abundance due to traditional agricultural practice. And I’m sure Professor John Gilliland will highlight the positives of some of these practices later on.
The reality is, with some relatively small changes to our current practice, we will deliver far more outcomes than simply depopulating vast areas of land. All that will achieve is the elimination of our rural communities and along with it our ability to produce food and drive a profitable return on investment (unlike the aforementioned) and create landscapes with huge fuel loads that are only conducive to wildfires.
However, it’s not just as simple as laying the facts on the table, our messages must be conveyed clearly to our consumers and right now with things like mixed messaging and lack of clarity through a flawed labelling system, it’s nearly impossible for our consumers to understand what they are purchasing. Hence the reason we commissioned the Diffley partnership to do some research into consumers’ views on the subject. We will be hearing from Mark and John later on and it’s clear that we have a great mandate to seriously revamp the labelling system.
With regard to our green credentials, I’m certainly not going to stand here and say everything that we’re doing as farmers and crofters is perfect, far from it, we all know that’s not the case. However, we must take every opportunity available to not only make changes that will make a difference to all of our futures, but also recognise a lot of current good practice that doesn’t get the recognition it deserves.
So provided our future policy focus continues in the right direction, (which I believe it is) with food production at the heart of it, then we can deliver on many of the asks society has today.
So where are we with policy? I hear a lot about there’s no detail, we don’t know what’s coming down the track. That’s simply not true, what I will say is there is no finalised detail for beyond 2026, and Scottish Government’s communication has fallen far short of ideal.
However, if we continue on the track we are currently on, and what I mean by that is no cliff edge as we gradually transition away from the current BPS and Greening system, to a new tiered structure of support that showcases our commitment to not only food production, but climate action and biodiversity enhancement too, then I believe we have a lot to be confident and positive about.
Of course, all of the above is dependent upon the Budget next week which will be absolutely critical to the future of farming and crofting in Scotland and will show the true colours of this new Labour Government as to how seriously it takes food security.
That said we cannot simply wait and see how the budget will go before we start to make plans for the future. Right now, we must make the assumption that at the very least we will have the same budget to play with and if that doesn’t happen then it will be up to the Scottish Government to make up the difference.
So, what do we know and what is coming down the track? Jonnie will go over this in more detail shortly but in a nutshell, we now know exactly what will be expected of us for our new BPS (tier 1) up till 2028. We know that by then we will have to have completed a whole farm plan where all 5 WFP actions if all applicable must be completed. Many businesses are already well down the road on this although only two need to be completed by the 15th of May 25.
We also know that as the IT system is not capable of radical change right now, the tier 2 element will consist of enhanced greening with some new additional EFA options and the possible removal of some exemptions to bring more people into the greening mix. I’ll leave the details to Jonnie, but rest assured this will be doable and makes our case for continued direct support rock solid.
However, it should not all be about direct support. Tier 3 will be vital for the unsupported sectors and whilst funding to come from Westminster will be paramount, the existing so-called borrowed money from the rural portfolio to fill funding gaps in other sectors must now have a timeline for its return. Of the £61m taken it is now good to see £15m back in this year’s budget, however we now need to see the full timeline on the return of the remaining £46m. This is the type of spend that should come back in as capital support to help some sectors update and adapt. Support for things like Food Processing, marketing and cooperation grant scheme slurry and water storage etc. This is exactly the type of spend that will future proof many businesses, So I put that question to you Minister Fairlie, what is the timeline for the return of this Money? I’ll give you some time to think of your answer.
Moving on to markets and retailers, it would be absolutely fair to say that beef and sheep prices are faring very well right now, however it’s not that it’s fantastic, it’s just where it needs to be. I spoke at the SAMW conference a few weeks back and the discussion was around halting the decline in the number of suckler beef cows in Scotland. I highlighted 5 different issues that were contributing factors.
Economics / price
Future policy
Succession
Labour
Perception
So, from a beef and sheep point of view, provided everyone in the supply chain continues to play their part then these sectors will remain viable and contribute massively to our rural communities.
I think lessons have now been learned from both the pigs and poultry sectors, whereby unless a realistic price is set to allow for profitability and investment, then supply will simply not be there. The whole supply chain, including our consumers, must recognise this, or indeed it will be the supply chain itself that will suffer.
This is a message that must also be conveyed right across the arable sector, the price currently available for cereals if not contracted is starting with a 1. Over 40 years ago our cereals price started with a 1. This is certainly not sustainable. For the likes of malting barley, the production cost alone is very close to starting with a 2. Yet the cost of the barley in Scotland’s biggest export is miniscule by comparison. This needs to be addressed or that supply and provenance are also at serious risk and I look forward to hearing from Ronald later on to give Chivas’s point of view on this.
Two other points I must mention which are definitely within Scottish Government’s gift to address.
River management and species management, and in some instances, both are linked. With river management we do now have a positive dialogue with sepa, and they have now agreed to look at specific cases and areas of greatest concern, and also have a rethink on licensing costs where damage has been caused through no fault of the farmer.
Minister, you and the Scottish Government already know my views on this, but I will take this opportunity to re-iterate them.
BURN SLIDE
This slide shows a burn next to me where an island formed. As you can see, when in spate the water is now forced to the other side and continual landslips now occur bringing more and more soil and debris down into the river. This has happened because of the lack of maintenance.
COUNCIL SLIDE
This slide shows a council worker doing some work,
T
his slide shows a council worker doing some maintenance. WHY?
URN SLIDE
So why is this any different?
FLOOD BANK BREACH
This is the next stage and as you know this happened last October, and I can now put some figures on this. This one breach required 25,000t of material to be carted in to repair the damage. The cost of this repair exceeded £500.000. The farmer in question here’s total loss with all the breaches and lost crop was over £2m. Whilst we welcomed up to £30,000 worth of help, as you can see minister, that didn’t touch the sides. We know in this instance, and it has been accepted that beavers exacerbated this situation.
This cannot go on,
In the west and north of Scotland, Sea eagles are having equally a devastating effect on the sustainability of farmers in our rural communities. Our crofting areas where there are over 600,000 hectares of common grazing managed by crofters are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain hefted flocks.
Minister, at the Highland Show back in June you announced the formation of the new Wildlife and Species Forum, which we all welcomed, however, to date this forum still has not met. If the issues I have addressed above are not dealt with in a realistic manner soon, then the rural communities’ part of the Agricultural Act will not have the meaning it was intended to have. You know as well as I do that some species will require management, or in time there may be no other species to manage.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I have always said we have the ability to really put Scotland on the map for all the right reasons. However, we cannot do that with our hands tied behind our backs. Governments must play their part to not only enable us to transition justly to a new future, but also to actively encourage growth by removing avoidable hurdles that do nothing to help us achieve all our goals. The main one being producing local high-quality food that drives our health and our economy.
On that note, it gives me great pleasure to welcome to the stage, someone who I hope will answer some of these questions. The Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity Jim Fairlie.
Jim, please take to the stage.