NFUS President Sets Out Challenges
24/02/05

Addressing NFU Scotland's Annual General Meeting in St Andrew's on February 24, the Union's President John Kinnaird outlined the key challenges for Scottish agriculture in the year ahead.

• Improving communications with consumers
• Grasping the opportunities of Common Agricultural Policy reform, by striving to improve business performance
• Fighting for fairer prices for farmers, reflecting the quality of Scottish produce.

Addressing the NFUS AGM at the St Andrews Bay Hotel, NFUS President John Kinnaird, said:

"Any industry that receives government support must clearly demonstrate the benefits it delivers in return. I believe Scotland's farmers deliver unrivalled value of money, not only in food quality terms, but also in managing Scotland's biggest asset, its natural landscape, and providing the foundation for hundreds of thousands of jobs in Scotland's rural areas. However, we need to improve our communication with the wider public. We must highlight our role, the value of public support for the industry and the importance of a sustainable farming industry.

"Our success in grasping the opportunities of CAP reform will dictate, to a large degree, how the farming industry prospers in the years ahead. The industry played more of a key role in shaping these changes than in any reform before. However, that influence brings with it a responsibility on the industry to make the new system work. The most successful businesses in any sector of industry are those that constantly challenge themselves, striving for greater efficiencies. We must continue to do the same with our businesses, knowing our exact costs of production, how to trim them and arguing for contracts and prices which reflect them.

"Whilst we improve our own performance, NFUS will be continuing the fight for fairer trade in our food industry. The OFT audit of the Supermarket Code of Practice is due to be published in the next few weeks. That must be used as the catalyst to develop greater trust and transparency in the food chain. When the relationship between retailers, processors and farmer suppliers works, it works well. However, there are too many instances where power is misused and that is unacceptable. We have outlined how the Code can be strengthened, primarily by extending its scope and providing reprisal-free enforcement and that will be a key theme in the year ahead."

In his address, Mr Kinnaird also highlighted importance of government co-ordinating its work towards the end of the Over Thirty Months Scheme and the re-opening of beef exports, a key priority for the beef industry in 2005. The importance of developing Land Management Contracts to deliver meaningful support to all sectors of farming across all parts of the country was also stressed.