NFU SCOTLAND PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS, GLASGOW – 6 FEBRUARY

Good morning again Ladies and Gentlemen,

As you all know this will be the last time, I will deliver a Presidential address at an NFU Scotland conference. And yes, I can hear the bottles getting corked already. However, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight not only some of the ground that’s been covered by NFU Scotland in the past and present but also look to the future and what our priorities should be as there is always unfinished business. 

That is of course the nature of this role and indeed the role of NFU Scotland as challenges of all kinds crop up every day, some historic and some new. That is exactly why this Union exists, and I know full well this industry is in a far better place than it might be had it not been for the efforts of many within this organisation over the years.

                                       LABOUR SLIDE

So, I mentioned unfinished business, one of these issues has been a problem for us for some time. Labour, the lack of both seasonal and full-time workers continues to put pressure on the industry, especially since Brexit. This is a reserved matter, and we continue to explain to the UK Government that the systems in place must be reviewed. Over recent years, the lack of certainty and the difficulties associated in recruiting labour has led to not only a reduction in crops grown but also a loss of crop due to the lack of people. We welcome the continuation of the five year commitment for seasonal workers, this is something NFU Scotland fought for vigorously, however we must now continue to push for more flexibility in the visa system, for example the six month visa should be extended to nine months to allow the length of season and indeed the weather in Scotland to be taken into account. The six-month cooling off period currently in place is putting further pressure on labour availability, especially for migrant workers who also have supervisor or managerial roles as they cannot come back into the country when needed. We must have an immigration policy that fits our needs. Having dropped the shortage occupation list in favour of an increased salary threshold which went up by a staggering 48 per cent has also put serious pressure on existing businesses.

The soft fruit sector alone only uses about one per cent of Scotland’s agricultural land but generates 16 per cent of economic output, that’s a staggering statistic that we must recognise and protect, but if we don’t have both access to a good labour force and a scheme that’s fit for purpose, we risk losing one of our most productive and valued sectors. It must be in the UK government’s interest to protect and enhance this sector, especially given the pressures of climate change that’s affecting many other areas more severely where traditionally we imported product. I have to say importing said products does absolutely nothing for climate change or indeed our economy. 

This was of course a major topic of conversation just two days ago on David Stephen’s farm near Old Meldrum where we met Scotland office minister Kirsty McNeill MP and Home Office minister for migration and citizenship Seema Malhotra MP. This is the first time I can remember meeting the Home office Minister in charge of migration so thank you Minister McNeill for helping to facilitate this. Our message could not have been clearer, and I have no doubt it will be raised again shortly.

 

                             FAMILY FARM TAX SLIDE

Trying to convince the current UK Treasury that they have got things wrong is proving difficult and of course this has been exacerbated after the UK budget on the 30 October which sent shockwaves through the agricultural sector for several reasons. The recent debate around APR, BPR and IHT is a point in case and right now one that is dominating conversations throughout the UK farming fraternity. We know the way this issue is being addressed is missing the intended target and very much hitting family farm businesses. 

 

                                       RALLY SLIDE

The recent hugely successful rallies over the past two weekends across the whole of the UK were instigated by NFU Scotland. We were initially all going to be going on the 25 January but sadly due to storm Eowyn we postponed ours at the last minute to allow emergency services to be completely unrestricted and also allow our members to not only tidy up their own devastation but also help out the wider communities who were really struggling. Postponing was absolutely the right decision and one we gained a lot of credit and respect for from the police and local authorities, who I must thank enormously for their help and guidance for our successful reconvened rallies last weekend. 

 

                             HEADLINES SLIDE

Not only did we make front page news on all the national newspapers, but we also drew out a number of politicians who attended them over the two days.

However, the rallies are there to keep the pressure on, but we still need to get the UK Treasury to come to the table with the four UK unions and discuss how best to go forward. Right now, there is no point in even coming up with alternatives until there is an acceptance that not all the available figures were being used. The data they were using was from 2021, we know they did not include BPR in the calculations nor did they use the correct values, the difference between balance sheet valuations and book value can be stark. We also now know after collating hard evidence from many experts in this field that this IHT decision will actually affect around 75 per cent of businesses which is in complete contrast to the 25 per cent the treasury has stated. This evidence has come from experts such as the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers, SRUC, Savills UK, The Rural Accountancy Group, AHDB and even the supermarkets who have all come out and said the calculations have not taken everything into account. 

The Rural Accountancy Group who represents well over 10,000 rural businesses right across the UK have highlighted 22 different case studies where family businesses will now be heavily caught up in this tax when they wouldn’t have done before. This all leads to no confidence and a lack of investment, yet the chancellor Rachel Reeves says she is trying to create jobs and growth. 

We have now written to the UK government with all of this evidence, and we continue to speak to labour MPs to get them to relook at this disastrous policy.

Sadly, at the moment we still have not had that round table opportunity with the UK treasury. And equally on the face of it, the UK government are doubling down on this policy in the hope that we will simply go away. That will not happen, and we will keep raising the profile on this until something changes. 

I hear many say we need to ramp up the pressure, including some politicians, some even say we simply need to turn the taps off. Going that far sounds great but the last thing we can afford to do is lose the support of the public, which remains vital. We also must think of the whole supply chain right through to the consumer. For example, when you look at the dairy sector, you can’t simply stop milking, you could pour it down the drain but that type of waste would be horrendous. The pigs and poultry sectors are also very vulnerable to this type of action as there is a sequence in the supply chain where the next batch of young stock must come in to replace the previous one. Indeed, in other sectors there are many unintended consequences of saying we will simply turn the taps off.

My own view if we need to ramp up the pressure is to take action that affects governments and authorities directly but still keeps food on the shelves. One such action I have heard mentioned is to stop taking sewage sludge from the likes of Scottish water and Thames water, which would really leave them in the s…  wouldn’t leave them in a good place. What would they do, put it in the rivers? Oh! I forgot they already do that. However, it is that type of action that could have an immediate effect.

I have no doubt this will also be a topic for Minister McNeill shortly.

 

                                      TRADE SLIDE

I have a few more other issues to raise that we are working hard on that’s relevant to UK reserved policy. The first one is trade, I am very pleased to say that I am in a much more confident place as to how trade will be dealt with in the future. We all know how we were used as a pawn in the Australia and New Zealand deals, that is something from the Boris Johnson, Liz Truss era we will not forget in a hurry. To be fair to Rishi Sunak, his administration took a much more sensitive approach to the CPTPP (comprehensive and progressive transpacific partnership) which does have TRQs in place. This is also something we have highlighted to the new UK Government, and they seem to be very keen to engage with us on concerns any such trade deals might bring. We did mention the possible India deal and this was relevant to egg powder, we know that India would see the UK as a great market for them in egg powder but we also know the conditions poultry are kept in, so any such trade would undermine our high standards. As a union the conversations we have had with Douglas Alexander MP, who is also the Minister for Trade, have been very valuable and we should continue with that dialogue.

  

                                 LABELLING SLIDE

Another reserved matter that would make a big difference to not only farmers and crofters but also to our consumers is labelling. I make no apology for bringing this up again, but as we have just completed our fourth and last ShelfWatch for the year, results of which should be out in about a fortnight, we continue to highlight flaws, complications and confusion in our labelling system. 

This not only confuses our consumers, but in many cases, it hoodwinks them into thinking they are buying Scotch or UK but in fact they are not. We need a root and branch review of the rules and regulation around labelling.

I’m not going to go over what our ideas are on this, that’s well documented, but we must get started with proper conversations round the table. This requires the likes of DEFRA, which will likely be challenging in itself, the Grocery Code Adjudicator, the newish appointment of the Agriculture and Supply Chain Adjudicator who enforces the fair dealings obligations on behalf of DEFRA, Food Standards Scotland, and the Food Standards Agency, possibly even the British Retail Consortium. That sounds like a big table, however its one we could convene.

However, this is not just about the retailers as one third of our consumption is in food service and we know virtually nobody ever asks enough questions of food service. 

I was told only last week from a very reliable butcher that one so called reputable restaurant buys a very limited amount of steak from its local butcher so they can say on the menu they buy beef from their local butcher, however the reality is the vast majority of the beef they buy is from wherever they can get it cheap. That is food crime but having carefully worded messages gets them out of the grasp of the food crime unit.

A labelling revamp that included the food service sector would make sure that that part of the food chain had to maintain the ethics and standards that we, the primary producers, are proud to maintain.

 

                              FARM ASSURANCE

Another thing I want to bring up from a UK perspective is the Farm Assurance Review. This was commissioned by the four UK unions and AHDB to look at how we can better deliver farm assurance especially for the benefit of the wider industry. Concluding with nine strategic recommendations, there is a real opportunity now to get mutual recognition of schemes and audits that satisfies the needs of many rather than having too much duplication that’s time onerous and simply frustrates the industry. 

It must be said that the devolved schemes faired well under this review with the biggest concerns around UK wide schemes, which came as no surprise. I look forward to hearing in more detail this afternoon from Mark Suthern about this positive work.

  

                            FARM TO FORK SLIDE

And finally, before I bring things closer to home, I must mention the continuation of the Farm to Fork Downing Street summit that has happened over the last two years but there is no mention of it so far this year. This was a UK Farm to Fork summit but frankly, having attended both it was extremely London centric with very little mention of the devolveds. 

At the moment the UK government is concentrating most of their interest on everything within the M25, and certainly not paying enough attention to rural areas that not only produce our food but look after our environment. 

The UK government must continue with a Farm to Fork summit this spring and, if they are serious about the union of our four nations, that they hold this summit alternately between Edinburgh, Belfast, Cardiff and London. That way there might at least be some chance the rural population do not feel completely neglected. I have just written to the Prime Minister with this very ask.

 

                                   FM SLIDE HUMZA

So, closer to home. This time last year I asked the Scottish Government to deliver on 5 key asks, these were in no particular order,

It would be fair to say the then First Minister Humza Yousaf MSP who attended our conference said he would look at some of these asks although he could make no promises. He did commit to our ask of 70% of rural support to be in Tiers 1 and 2 of future support with the LFA budget added to that. However, we still await confirmation of how the split between 1 and 2 will be divided, our view is that this split should also have at least 70% in tier 1 as we are continually being asked to do more.

It would also be fair to say that since then the promise of the return of the £61m has now been assured and in the budget and there is no longer a Bute House Agreement, so that makes it two from five, sound familiar? 

Public procurement, fairer supply chains and an enhanced budget remain outstanding. It might also be fair to say that since one of our particular asks was granted, the First Minister lost his job.

 

                            FM SLIDE JOHN SWINNEY

 

I sincerely hope this doesn’t make our New First Minister John Swinney MSP nervous about any commitments he may make tomorrow. 

So added to the 3 outstanding asks from last year are the 4  I put to the  First Minister at AgriScot in November, namely more pragmatic regulation when it comes to  river management, more understanding of the consequences of incorrect species management, to finally move on a date for bovine EID and to put an end to the threat of a National Park in one of Scotland’s biggest economic regions.

In November I asked the First Minister to deliver six from six by 26, we now have a total of seven and given the length of time it takes for governments to move, I think if all seven can be delivered by 27, we would almost be happy. 

So, for more detail on these outstanding asks, I will start with the budget. Our ask was for an equal uplift in the overall agricultural budget equivalent to the increase that the Scottish Government received in the Block grant from the UK government. 

The uplift was 8 percent which equated to £3.4bn, and the Scottish Government’s overall budget is now the biggest ever at some £60bn. That means currently the direct support delivered to Scottish agriculture equates to less than one percent of the total Scottish budget. 

To me, that’s incomprehensible given not only what more we are being asked to do, but more importantly, we are the only industry that provides us with the one thing we need to survive, food. 

I would also reiterate our ask to make sure all agricultural budgets are fully spent. They may well not all be applied for in full due to the number of eligible applicants, but changing the payment rates to make sure they are spent in full would send a strong positive message to the industry.

 

                       FLOOD MANAGEMENT SLIDE

Next up is river management. This has been an issue for over 30 years and sadly government and the agricultural industry are not going to agree on the way forward. Before I go on to a solution, I would like to take out any buck passing, we often get told this is purely a SEPA issue, but the reality is SEPA only enforce the regulation set by Ministers. Then all too often the Ministers who set the regulation disappear and we are left as the only constant who have to pick up the pieces with SEPA who are then seen as the devil.

So, here’s the possible solution to end all arguments. For a period of no less than 15 years, which in environmental and biodiversity terms is the blink of an eye, allow a meaningful catchment in Scotland to be managed by farmers and land managers from source to sea. If after this 15-year period there is no significant improvement in the biodiversity of the catchment and no improvement in terms of flood prevention, then we will hold our hands up and say ok we were wrong. If, however, there is significant improvement in both of the above then we rest our case and across Scotland we go back to what we traditionally did up to 30 years ago when so many of the restrictions we currently have came into play.

 

                  SPECIES MANAGEMENT SLIDE

Next up is species management, and you’ve maybe guessed already where I might be going with this, but one thing’s for sure, if we are really committed to rural communities as it says in the new Agriculture and Rural Communities Act, we simply cannot ignore the mental strain and financial losses our primary producers are currently taking on the chin due to the exponential rise in these species, not to mention the indirect effect on other species. 

In many circumstances compensation and mitigation is woeful at best, and non-existent at worst and it simply cannot go on. The Scottish Government must stand up for the rural way of life that put Scotland on the map in the first place. The economy, the environment and the social fabric of rural Scotland was built on hard work, dedication and the love of the land by those who had generations of valuable experience.  Not those who continue to promote fluffy idealistic views and policies provided it’s not in their back yard. 

So, either meaningful budgets must accompany meaningful compensation, or proper licencing to keep a managed balance for all species has to be put in place or our rural communities will only be fit for wildfires. I really welcome the newly formed Wildlife and species forum, and I hope it recognises this before it is too late. As for the illegal release of Lynx, I hope when the culprits are found they are made an example of as this is a serious wildlife crime that should not be tolerated.  I hope the Scottish Government also repeats the commitment the previous cabinet secretary made about this ridiculous proposal for its reintroduction.

 

                                     EID SLIDE

Bovine electronic ID (EID), well I’ve actually nothing more to add to this debate which has gone on for well over 20 years. I feel I have said it all on many occasions other than to say, we now have a fantastic chance to really put Scotland on the map and lead the way with Ultra High Frequency (UHF) technology. My only ask of Scottish Government on this one is to simply say mandate this technology on a primary tag and give us a date.

 

                GOOD FOOD NATION ACT SLIDE

The next ask is of public procurement, we consistently say that we want to support local, yet this doesn’t happen even with public procurement. I recently attended a round table discussion on the needs of the farming community chaired by Perth and Kinross CEO Thomas Glen, I have to say it was an excellent meeting cutting across many issues. I asked a question about what the Good Food Nation Act meant to them with regards to public procurement and there was a silence as if it was something nobody had heard about. Surely this act has to have meaning, and I would have hoped that from a local authority point of view it would be front and centre when it came to sourcing food from the right areas for the right reasons. This is something I would ask the Scottish Government to lead by example on and act upon as soon as possible. 

Added to this is the benefit of fairer supply chains. Yes, to a degree, this is also a UK issue, however promoting local food for local consumption without the hoodwinking of our consumers can only deliver fairness to our local producers.

                            NATIONAL PARK SLIDE

Last on my list is of course, the proposed new National Park in the Southwest. NFU Scotland remains strongly opposed to such a move and we have consistently at local and national level laid out in detail all the reasons why this move would be detrimental to one of the most productive economic areas of Scotland. The Scottish Government must listen to the people who live and work in the area and who depend on an economic return from the land, not those who like the idea because it’s a nice thing to do. Any compromise in our ability to produce food in productive areas such as the southwest, will not only disincentivise investment into the biggest economic driver of the local economy, but compromise our ability to produce more food sustainably in a time of such global volatility. This proposal must be rejected.

                                BRUSSELS SLIDE

As I said at the start, this will be my last Presidential address at this conference, and I would like to finish with some reflections, comments and advice.

From my own perspective since first serving on a national committee, which was the LFA committee back in 2009, the last 16 years have simply flown past. My progression through NFU Scotland was due to friends and colleagues persuading me to keep taking the next step, then once you get motivated you keep wanting to do more, and I have to say you begin to think you can do anything. 

That led to my first real reality check when I became LFA Vice Chair in 2012 or 13. I was getting consistently rattled by the EU commission’s determination to impose on us things we didn’t want. So, Director of Policy Jonnie Hall relented and said right we will go to Brussels, and you just let them have it and tell them exactly what you think. 

Well, if you’ve ever seen a dog come home bitten with its tail between its legs that was me. 

However, I learnt from that and learnt that the way to influence what you want is through constructive dialogue, yes sometimes you need to stand up and be counted and I am proud to have led three different major rallies in my time as President.  These are required to raise the profile; however, the real work is often never seen and it’s through that constructive dialogue offering solutions with a positive attitude that gets mileage. 

Whenever you put your head above the parapet, it’s likely to get shot down, and I can tell you it’s just as well I’m so bloody small or what I’ve gone through would have been a hell of a sight worse.  

                                TRENCH SLIDE

But provided you have the full backing of a good board and professional staff team, which I’m privileged to have had both, you just have to take these knocks on the chin and know full well the decisions you are ultimately responsible for are in the best interests of the wider industry. 

However, over the past three and a half years, there have been some difficult times that do, without question, get to you, especially as my relationship with Scottish Government as the co-chair of ARIOB, for some, seemed to be the wrong thing to do.

                                       NFU SG SLIDE

We will never always get what we want, but one thing I have learned over the past eight years in particular, is if you are not in the room, you don’t have a voice. 

You may want to grandstand, and it might get the press for a few days, but after that, rest assured someone else will be in that room making decisions for you and you’ll be thrown the scraps.

My view is the closer you get to the decision makers, the better placed you are to provide the positive solutions that will meet the objectives and obligations of everyone concerned and sometimes that means compromises.

I will give you a few examples.

Over the past few years your Union has secured an Agricultural and Rural Communities Act that will have the flexibility to deliver on what this industry requires. Yes, it is a framework act, and we will still require secondary legislation to deliver the detail. 

However, given the current geopolitical and climate change situation, we may need the flexibility in this act to incentivise more food production and the current act will allow that to happen.

I would also draw your attention to our retention of direct support, LFA support and coupled payments. 

Many seem to have taken these for granted and complain about the conditionality. When I mention these complaints to our counterparts in the rest of the UK, they look at me as if I have two heads. I have to also say that the conditionality that is coming into play is not only securing these direct payments, but also designed to reduce emissions, enhance the environment, and help the business financially. 

I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that without our influence and close working relationship with Scottish Government, we would not be in the current position we are.

Finally, I must say a massive thank you to everyone who has helped me on this journey over the years. Firstly to Director of Policy Jonnie Hall who has been a great support to me, he’s kept me right and kicked me under the table on the odd occasion, especially that first time in Brussels and I think over the years our double acts at roadshows etc seemed to work quite well. 

But of course, it’s the whole staff body that makes it all tick and I’ve been privileged to work with a team that punches way above its weight and never gets the recognition it thoroughly deserves. 

Of course, that staff team needs a leader, and I am delighted that John Davidson now leads this team with optimism and positivity, something that I’ve always tried to convey regardless of the challenges.

I must also thank the presidential folk I have worked with over the past eight years, Andrew McCornick, Gary Mitchell, Charlie Adam, Robin Traquair, and my two current Vice Presidents Andrew Connon and Alasdair Macnab who I wish all the best for tomorrow’s election.

                                        FAMILY SLIDE

However, my biggest thanks must go to my wife Jane and the girls at home, especially Katrina. Without their support and that of my brother Drew, especially in the earlier years, putting in the commitment this job demands would have been impossible. 

Thank you very much.

  

                                  NFU SCOTLAND SLIDE