The conference, chaired by NFU Deputy President, Minette Batters, heard from high-level speakers from across the supply chain. Among them was NFU dairy farmer member David Christensen.
He writes:
I was asked to speak on behalf of Arla at the East Midlands Regional Conference entitled ‘Business after Brexit’. Over 200 farmers attended to learn about how a number of our customers from most of the farming sectors were preparing for Brexit with Gs, 2 Sisters, British Sugar, Openfield and Arla all represented. The NFU's Director of EU Exit Nick von Westenholz also spoke and Neil Wilson, head of HSBC Agriculture, talked about Brexit from a banking perspective and in particular gave the audience some helpful advice on what the bank saw as the main points for farming businesses to focus on. The conference was very capably chaired by Minette Batters who kept us all to time which allowed for a useful Q&A session at the end.
What struck and reassured me was that we were largely singing from the same hymn sheet. The trade deal, labour, equivalence of regulation and the importance of the right domestic agricultural policy kept coming up from the speakers. This is certainly the case for Arla and a lot of time is being spent within the business to work out mitigation strategies for the various possible outcomes and also to communicate with MPs and key decision makers as to the effects of a bad Brexit outcome on the UK dairy sector.
Neil Wilson highlighted the importance of how running efficient businesses allows us to cope more easily with volatility and also raised the question as to how many of us had a strategic plan for our businesses together with some succession planning. Some thoughtful questions from the floor rounded off this very successful event.
Full credit to the East Midlands region for the idea and then putting together this conference - it showed the NFU working at its best which is so important for us all as we head into Brexit.