From hot potatoes to low-hanging fruit – the horticulture breakout at NFU15 focused on seizing the opportunities for growth.
A ‘Question Time’ style session heard the NFU board’s strategic priorities, chief among them the removal of regulatory barriers.
Then it was on to an open Q&A session, chaired by the Fresh Produce Journal editor Michael Barker. The big issues there included seasonal labour, Red Tractor and the Groceries Code Adjudicator.
The first topic of discussion was on seasonal foreign labour and the need for migrant labour in the horticulture sector.
Guy Poskitt, NFU Horticulture and Potatoes Board Chairman said: “The UKIP message is a bit of a warning to government that people want something doing on immigration. In horticulture we need to make it clear that we need migrant labour because without them we have no business. We are big employers of foreign workers. Every NFU member should be out there telling their MP that before the General Election.
Anthony Snell, NFU Horticulture and Potatoes Board said: “We mustn’t let the government make this a political issue. These are seasonal workers. We want to get a son of SAWS but it may be a little while. The strength of the pound is very attractive at the moment so we keep our fingers crossed that we’ll be OK this year.”
On the Red Tractor and its relationship with British horticulture Chris Hartfield, NFU policy adviser said: “A lot of growers now mark-up their flowers as British grown, under the Home Grown logo which is steadily growing in its uptake and use.”
Guy Poskitt added: “We can’t back off it now because we’ve got 60% recognition now of the logo which is a long way from where we were before. What we mustn’t do is encourage other auditing schemes to confuse customers.”
Rob Clayton, Potato Council brought up the promotion of horticulture and potatoes as a sector. he said: “We have just signed off a new research and innovation strategy to help the industry help drive new product development. That has to be consumer driven. Our approach at the moment is to go to the food bloggers and the people who set the trends to see if we get more traction that just pushing the supermarkets to put more information on the potato packaging.”
Anthony Snell said: “We have a free marketing message in horticulture and we’re unique in that the more you eat of our product the healthier you will be. It’s a big health thing and I’m glad we’ve pushed that on the horticulture agenda.”
Guy Poskitt answered the question on diminishing margins in the potato sector: “We’ve got to say to retailers that they must look at their own businesses and make the processes simpler. They have made a simple job very difficult and the discounters are coming in and making it a lot easier for farmers to do business. “
On food service procurement of British produce Guy Poskitt said: “I think one of the NFU’s initiatives in the next year or two is to really push naming and shaming food services that don’t use British produce. There’s no rational or country of origin labelling in public service and in some restaurants people would be appalled if they knew they weren’t eating British produce.”
And finally Anthony Snell commented on the adjudicator: “Christine Tacon and the Groceries Code Adjudicator role was a long time coming but is doing a brilliant job. In the soft fruit sector we’ve already seen improvements in the option for packaging and it’s definitely working. If we can work towards more collaboration and shared responsibility maybe in the long term she won’t be required.”
How do I watch live?
If you’ve got a computer and an internet connection, you can watch most of the sessions in the main hall by clicking on the player in this page.