Agribusiness News March 2024

Welcome to the March edition of Agribusiness News.  If you prefer to download this document click the download button.

N e w s  i n  b r i e f

Farmer protests shine a light on food quality

Farmers across the EU and more recently in Wales have been protesting against new policies for increased environmental compliance and the impact of these on farm businesses and food production. In Europe, a key concern is also rising input prices but low and stagnant farm income, as well as increased burden for climate and biodiversity measures. In Wales, the new Sustainable Farming Incentive will require 10% of farms to be planted for woodland and an additional 10% set aside for biodiversity, with impacts estimated to reduce both the national flock and agricultural employment as a result.

In Scotland, the Agriculture and Rural Communities Bill in is stage 1 of consultation, with details of future support and compliance yet to be outlined. However, the National Good Food Nation Plan has recently been published, which is now open for public consultation until the 22^nd April. This consultation offers an opportunity to showcase explicitly how farming can help to achieve wider societal objectives, such as producing local and good quality food, and enabling the public to engage with and understand where and how their food is produced. Details on how to respond to the consultation, and joining a series of upcoming in-person and virtual engagement events can be found here: https://consult.gov.scot/agriculture-and-rural-economy/national-good-food-nation-plan/

Also, at the end of January, the NFUS did the largest ever ‘shelf-watch survey’ across supermarkets in Scotland to understand the availability of Scottish produce, as well as labelling and price. Overall Aldi had the highest proportion of Scottish produce (48.7%) and Sainsbury’s the lowest (7.6%). Since NFUS’ results were published, Sainsbury’s has announced a new ‘Best of British’ section in their online shopping platform.

Next month:

• Livestock health planning
• Planning for retirement
• Extending the Scottish lamb market

This month’s editor – Anna Sellars