|
WFU National Conference 200710th - 12th AprilWhat's Next?A record number of attendees enjoyed this year's conference, which was held at Felsted School in Essex and hosted by the WFU Dengie Hundreds branch. Congratulations to branch chairman, Janet Thorogood and her team!  The conference started with a most enjoyable dinner on the Tuesday evening featuring excellent local food and a local speaker. Ionwen Lewis
She rued the demise of the British dairy industry which has declined from 30,00 farmers to only 12,000 in the last few years and hoped that Tesco's pledge to increase the price paid to a few of its milk suppliers would be copied by other retailers. She thanked the Women's Institute for its campaign to raise awareness of the industry's problems. Guy Smith, Conference Chairman
He is a member of numerous farming committees, on the NFU Council and is also a Nuffield Scholar. Professor Jules Pretty OBE, Essex University - What next for the Land?
Jules Pretty looked at the impact of climate change on UK agriculture. Change is happening and this is only the beginning. How well organised are we in guiding that change? Our industrial country is disconnected from the land and from the environmental challenge of climate change. Some of the difficulties include consumption patterns and lifestyles. We are consuming our resources and politics is currently not making a long term impact. "We eat every day and yet we vote every 5 years". Most of the time we do not think about the consequences of consumption. Globally aspirations are to achieve the same lifestyle that we enjoy in the developed world (i.e at the limit of consumption), but this is not practical or possible with current resources. When Carbon is used as a measure of lifestyle, North America consumes 80 tonnes of carbon per year compared with 10-12 in the UK and 0.1 in Bangladesh. Food production accounts for 20% of carbon emissions and air travel only 1-1½%. Politics can only offer short term solutions. Professor Pretty pointed out that civilisations only last on average 900 years and we are heading for the end of civilisation as we know it. All civilisations were at the cutting edge of technology when they disappeared and all thought they would go on forever. Advancement seems to lead to disconnection. Globally we suffer from anomolies. 700 million people are clinically obese and yet 800million are hungry. The obese are not the well off, but the poor. Children no longer spend much time out of doors. We are in the grips of an obesity epidemic. Land is multifunctional and recently it has focussed on food production, but we have now solved the food production and are looking to new ways of using the land - environmental services such as carbon sequestration, water conservation, amenity services and leisure services. We must act individually to do what we can to adapt and alleviate the effects of climate change - for example buy local to reduce food miles. He suggested that we need to give food a story in order to localise it. By linking food to places, we link consumers to those places and encourage them to buy. Agriculture can help climate change by rethinking the nature of the land - and soon! Government targets are not sufficient and we must act as leaders to set examples of good practice and drive change. Technology such as genetic modification should be part of the process if it can help the problem. The Earth Only Endures by Jules Pretty. Simon Ward, Increment Ltd - The Impact of Policy on Farming
Change is extremely difficult to bring about and to adapt to - men find it harder than women! Farming has been the subject of change over the past 100 years. Lower prices have been offset by higher yields, but UK wheat yields have plateaued over the last 20 years. Maize yields in the US continue to grow and this results in the loss of wheat's position in the world market. There is a constant pressure to increase the size of farms, raise yeilds and increase the risks in order to remain profitable in farming. Innovation is essential - new products or technologies to differentiate and increase profit. Supermarkets are a mixed blessing for farming. A novel product is a big lever for them - if you can produce something that is in short supply, they will pay a premium. How can we differentiate milk? Biofuels offer a new market opportunity for products. Interestingly the prices of sugar and oil follow a similar path because of the manufacture of ethanol by the world's largest sugar producer, Brazil. Sugar cane is much more efficient in the production of bioethanol than wheat, sugar beet or maize. World wheat stocks are declining and are at a lower level than ever before. When stocks are low, prices rise and this has an adverse effect on livestock production. An increase in demand for land for the production of biofuels would result in further environmental pressures. Politicians cannot sit back and do nothing - they will have to adapt. Simon outlined the current changes in European farming politics - modulation, the ending of export refunds and setaside, decoupling of land use and food production, capping of payments, the end of production quotas, the simplification of the 10 month rule and the movement from Pillar I payments to Pillar II. He thought that in future there will be more specialist farmers AND more mixed farms together with an intensive environmental policy. We must find new ways of adding value to existing products and build relationships with customers to become profitable. Think - opportunity, think large, think new. Dr Andrew Fearne, Kent University - Understanding the Food Shopper
Andrew Fearne's Powerpoint presentation. Dr Kevin Hawkins, British Retail Consortium
Dr Hawkins outlined the trends in retailing, such as an the increase in the major retailer share against the decline in traditional retailing. On-line sales are insignificant. Shoppers like to see what they are buying. Most of the growth areas are in non-food and future growth is likely to decrease. The dominant factors in consumer purchasing are price and convenience. Customers like familiarity with the store, easy access and the right price, which is not necessarily the cheapest, but the best value for money. There has been an increase in healthy eating and low fat products. There has also been an increase in ethical consumers who care about the way in which their food is produced, but most do not care. "Farmers need to convey more information to consumers on the way that the food is produced." 25% of people will pay more for local food, but 29% do not care where their food comes from. Perceptions of local vary, but most relate it to the county boundaries. Consumers view local food as an indulgence - a treat, different, interesting and better quality. They do not relate it to environmental factors or support for producers. Local produce is difficult for large retailers because of low volumes, higher prices and seasonality or variance in availability. Surprisingly, more people look to find local in supermarkets than they do in Farm Shops or Farmers' Markets. Forecasts for the next 5 years are a 50% increase in organic, 20% increase in local and regional food, a 77% increase in 'finest' produce and 105% increase in "fair trade" produce. Kevin feels that consumers are becomng more engaged in food. There will be concentration in retailer market share. Retailers' fixed costs are currently rising well above the RPI and margins are being eroded so that there is constant pressure on prices paid to suppliers. The main driver is the competition between Tesco and Asda. The drive to cut costs includes trading terms with suppliers and retailers are looking for scale economies. They are consolidating their supply base. With the exception of milk, farmers are being paid higher prices this year, even though their costs are rising faster than prices. The English Food and Farming Partnership (EFFP) is encouraging farmers to co-operate and collaborate. There is a big difference in economic performance between the best and worst farmers and benchmarking is helping to improve performance. In the future retailers need:
Kevin Hawkins's Powerpoint presentation
 Before lunch delegates were treated to a cookery demonstration by members of the Good Houskeeping team, Joanne Finney and Alsion Walker. Richard Ali, English Beef and Lamb Executive (EBLEX)
The Global beef and lamb market puts pressures on UK prices. 47% of England is grassland which is only good for producing animals. EBLEX are pleased to suport the Country Living/Farmers' Guardian campaign, "No Cows, No Countryside". EBLEX aims to achieve better margins for producers through quality assurance schemes. The Beefy and Lamby adverts have raised awareness of quality assurance schemes and prices have increased over the last two years. A collection of recipes has been developed, some especially for schools. Co-mingling of products on supermarkets is a problem - it fools consumers into buying imported produce, even when they are careful to select what they believe to be locally produced meat. Consumers should have clear information in order to be able to make informed purchasing decisions. The food service sector also forms an important part of the market and origin labelling should be improved here too. Offal has become seen as a waste product and EBLEX is seeking new markets for offal. There is a "Better Returns" programme to improve production efficiency through demonstrating best practice. 1 in 5 Engllish lambs is exported to France, but consumption there is falling because of adverse exchange rates. Tim Brigstocke, Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers
The dairy industry across the whole of Europe is in decline with the largest reduction in dairy farmers being in Denmark in sit of co-operation and a ready market in Arla. There has been a 40% decline in UK dairy farmers over the last 7 years. and in Spain 63% have gone out of production. I the US the trend is towards larger farms. 36% of production comes from only 2,700 farms, most of whch are in California. There has been a polarisation towards large agri-businesses and small family farms. We currently produce 1½-3billion litres/year too much milk in the UK and prices cannot increase until production is reduced. Much milk is sold below the cost of production. Briatin has the lowest milk prices in Europe - 10% below the EU average. Why are prices so low?
The recent Tesco offer to increase the price of milk is divisive because it is only offered to a small number of producers. There is no direct link to producers where the milk has to be processed and we can only hope that there will be a knock on effect to other supermarkets. 14 billion litres of milk are produced under a quota system that will be pahsed out by 2015. Most of this is commodity production. 7 billion litres of this goes into the liquid milk market and 2-3 billion litres is unwanted. UK cheese consumption is increasing but this is often imported cheese. There is a growth in branded liquid milk consumption. Tim Brigstocke's Powerpoint presentation. Christopher Philpot, Barleylands - diversification by an Essex farmer
Chris outlined the history of the family farm and how the busisness has developed in the way that it has, starting with a collection of old farm machinary that became a farm museum and turning into a large agricultural education centre with a full time education officer together with a farm shop, tea room and craft village. The farm is now a very profitable tourist attraction with a good number of craft workshops on site. This ahs all been achived with a number of DEFRA grants for diversification enterprises. Initially the project cost the family a considerable amount of money and some enterprises such as the Pick Your Own. At one stage Foot and Mouth disease closed the whole operation down and all the staff were made redundant. The family are no longer investing in farming because it is not a profitable business, but they are still investing in expanding Barleylands. To find out more about Barleylands check their website at www.barleylands.co.uk Yolande Clark - Inheritance Tax, a member's case study After tea, founder member, Yolande Clark talked to members about her experiences after the sudden death of her mother in 2005. She gave useful advice on how to ease the trauma of death and to cope with the complexities of the demands of Inheritance Tax. Members were advised to ensure that their land is registered with the Land Registry.
Not sure what this is about but it seems to be Dairy Chairman, Barbara, dancing with a cow! A good number of members stayed over to the following day for the visit to the home of Tiptree jam. Nearly all the fruit that goes into their jams is produced on the farm. They also supply fresh fruit to Waitrose. members discovered the history of jam-making at Tiptree and walked through the orchards. Jam is made throughout the year to order using fruit that has been freeze dried. www.wfu.org.uk |
WFU President, Ionwen Lewis, opened the conference and welcomed guests from around the coutry. She pleaded the case for a viable agricultural industry and "Fair Trade for British Farmers". 
The conference was chaired by well known Essex farmer, Guy Smith. Guy is a prolific journalist, having columns in several farming publications, including "Smith's Soapbox" in Arable Farmer and he is the editor of the farming information leaflet, "Farm, Food and the Countryside. 
Dr Fearne explained the usefulness of the Dunhumby data, which is free to farmers, in improving business development. The Dunnhumby data is based on 1.2 million shoppers and represents 40% of UK households. UK farmers cannot compete globally on price and should therefore target their customers. The Dunnhumby data gives them the ability to examine the market by lifestyle group, lifestage group and region. The aim is to efficiently allocate resources and to market produce well. Supermarkets want to offer thir customers choice and differentiation on their shelves, not commodities. You can improve marketing by telling a good story and relating it to the customer - provenance. Companies that make a profit are not usually the cheapest, they are offering what the customer wants.
