Our main focus was on our SoS to see if he would provide any signs of what’s to come in Defra’s white paper on agriculture. That was somewhat sidestepped with the big statement of the morning being Gove’s announcement that £40 million of unspent RDP funding will now be destined for productivity and innovation in the farming sector. With a deadline of December 2018, farmers now have over a year to get their applications in for this grant scheme that will be 40% funded by the EU (warning the minimum project cost is £87,500).
Find out more about the innovation fund here
In Gove’s view farmers adopting robotic milking techniques will help increase productivity and reduce our reliance on migrant labour. When pushed on labour, the answer was polished. Gove recognised that 90% of vets in the Meat Hygiene Service are from the EU and that we need to guarantee they have a job in the future. Economic growth is strong in other EU countries so Brexit isn’t the sole reason that EU workers are leaving the UK. Government will provide a seasonal scheme as a successor to SAWS but we need to move away from the requirement for as many labour units on farm through adoption of automation, technology and innovation.
Gove went on to state that he will guarantee maximum access on trade and labour for the UK to which Hogan responded: “this will take some negotiation seeing as the main issue for the UK prior to the Brexit vote was immigration”.
The SoS’s main message was that he didn’t see why there needed to be a trade-off between high welfare and environmental credentials and productivity gains, although he didn’t go as far as referring to #GreenBrexit in Belfast.
Hogan was his usual charismatic self, completely at home on a farming podium so close to home. He indulged the local industry by admiring the grass fed Northern Irish dairy sector but then got down to business by talking about improvements in the fortunes of EU dairy farmers now that average farmgate milk prices are 9% higher than the 5 year average (at 35.5€c/kg). He pressed the need to move to a more market orientated industry that will help manage future volatility at farm and processing.
Exports are the way forward with overall EU agricultural exports at record levels of €130bn a year. This has mainly been driven by dairy with exports up 8% on volume and 25% on value.
Then the thorny “little issue” of SMP was mentioned. His solution is to set the price at zero for 2018 and put in place a tendering process. Going forward we will need to export 13% of EU dairy production to keep supply and demand in balance.
If Gove was silent on the future UK farm policy, Hogan was happy to share his thinking on the new CAP. Specifically for dairy the Commissioner wants firstly and foremost to see a more integrated and professional relationship between milk buyers and farmers. To support this the Commission will seek to:
- Simplify the CAP
- Increase support for producer organisations
- Continue direct payments in CAP Pillar 1
- Put more focus on Risk Management in CAP Pillar II
Ever the pragmatist his last words were that we need “realistic and results orientated solutions.”