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November 2009 Archives
The countdown to 2012 has already begun and all eyes are on
It is set to be an event like no other, and we have already been promised it will be the biggest and best we have seen to date.
Yes, Arla's proposed new milk processing plant is something which will place the
And one which could - for the dairy industry at least - be an event far more significant than the small matter of the Olympics taking place just the other side of the M25.
That sentiment will not be lost on the
It shows confidence in an industry which has been battered from pillar to post in recent years. It also demonstrates that Arla is in it for the long term as it cements its position as the biggest liquid milk processor in the country.
And with 1 billion litres of milk - that's enough to fill the Olympic swimming pool at
The announcement raises two big questions. First, where will Arla get the milk from, and second, is retail growth at Arla going to be strong enough to sustain those volumes?
The simple answer is not without big changes. One presumes they will need to recruit many more producers and they will also have to target retail and wholesale contracts already held by other processors.
That should set a cat among the pigeons as the other big players, Wiseman and Dairy Crest, look at their own liquids business wondering if they can sustain their position.
Wiseman, one would argue, can. With its impressive new dairy at Bridgwater producing 375 million litres a year it already has the strength of position to see off any challenge.
Dairy Crest however is a different matter. It would take a huge investment for it to match the two biggest players in the market and its liquids business is likely to be vulnerable from the anticipated onslaught from Arla.
But whatever happens in the processing sector one thing is for sure, the
I just got back from three days in
I was in the north, near to
I thought I was just going to learn about sugar beet - grown to perfection in the area - but I was also treated to a fascinating subplot.
'This land', I was told as a hand swept around a beet field and pointed into the distance, 'used to be divided right down the middle with the democratic capitalists in west and the communists in the east. But now we are united'.
He was, of course, talking about the division of the country after the Second World War.
Today all that signifies the old border, which dissolved precisely 20 years ago, is a signpost on the roadside, but the memories of division are still strong for all Germans.
It was tough in the countryside.
Families were torn apart, farms were split in half, businesses were destroyed and lives were sacrificed in a fight to end the division which only concluded in 1989.
On Tuesday this week, at the same time Barrack Obama, Gordon Brown and other dignitaries spoke about the defeat of communism and freedom of the Eastern Bloc to huge crowds in
OK, we weren't in
Our speaker was Dr Hermann Strube, head of the Strube seed company that has research facilities on both sides of the old border.
The fall of communism saved businesses like his, he said.
"Twenty years ago today we were allowed to cross the border for the first time - it was an incredible moment.
"We would not be here without the fall of the Berlin Wall so this is a very special day for us," he said.
Strube is now one of the world's foremost sugar beet experts.
Learn more about the company and its latest sugar beet developments in the paper and online over the coming weeks.
How do you confuse a group of industry leaders in a field?
By asking 'the man in the grey suit' to move forward, as a hapless photographer discovered during the launch of the Campaign for the Farmed Environment.
His request was met by furrowed brows and worried looks as 10 out the dozen industry 'great and good' lined up across a six metre margin in a Bedfordshire field wondered if he meant them.
The incident, which generated much amusement afterwards, highlighted both the phenomenal success in getting to this point and challenge that lies ahead in getting those that don patched up farm jackets and muddy wellington boots for their work to buy into it.
That predominantly grey suited line-up shivering in a field on NFU president Peter Kendall's farm represented an unprecedented coming together of Government and farming, farming advice and the environmental interests.
Despite the bleak Bedfordshire weather, the mood was unremittingly upbeat and the sense of pride and achievement palpable.
With good reason.
As Defra Secretary Hilary Benn said once these suits had joined more among the 100 or so others gathered for the launch in a heated barn, it is has been a hard road getting here, but we are in a 'better place' than anyone had ever anticipated.
The debate over what to do after set-aside had been one of the most bitter and hard-fought in modern farming.
Mr Benn recalled how on one side he had the environmental lobby demanding that he 'regulates now' to preserve the environmental benefits of the policy, while, on the other, the farming industry pleaded with him not to.
In the end, Mr Benn chose to trust farmers. So the NFU and CLA got the decision they wanted, a voluntary policy.
The Campaign for the Farmed Environment, a national campaign to be played out at local level, is the nuts and bolts of that policy.
All the organisations present have now thrown weight and there as an indisputable will to make it work.
Words and phrases like 'watershed', 'unprecedented partnership' and 'historic' were banded about liberally. None of them seemed out of place.
But there was one nagging doubt lurking within the whole event.
That was the suspicion that the wider farming fraternity remains largely unaware of the campaign or, at best in many cases, indifferent to it.
Allied to this is the concern that some farmers are simply unaware of the battle that has taken place to get here.
While what is being asked of them may seem like an unnecessary burden to some, the truth is that it would have been much, much worse if that battle had not been won by the industry.
This was touched on only briefly, notably when the RSPB's Graham Wynne spoke of the need to mobilise the large number of 'recalcitrant' farmers. The real test of success will be what has changed in a year's time, he said.
Few disagreed. Because the reality, as everyone knows is that, while the 'suits' have got us this far, it is in the hands of the wellington booted masses to make this laudable partnership work.
I have lost count of the number of times I have listened to Professor John Beddington's 'perfect storm' speech.
At a high-level seminar on the future of agriculture in
The only difference was his tie.
The perfect storm, he said, is a confluence of earth-shattering figures:
- World food reserves are at a 50-year low.
- By 2030 we need to be producing 50% more food to feed the growing population.
- At the same time, we will need 50% more energy.
- We will demand 30% more fresh water.
- And if that wasn't tough enough we must do this while reducing carbon emissions by 80% from 1990 levels by 2050.
Time is running out.
Prof Beddington is valiantly hammering the message home whenever he gets a chance, to the point that 'perfect storm' is now part of the food security vocabulary.
But is the message sinking in?
The problem is the figures are so incredible they are almost surreal. The challenge is so vast it is almost not worth contemplating.
Almost.
Take a took at the climate change debate to see the dangers of becoming complacent in the face of a great challenge.
There is a growing trend of voters drifting into the 'climate change sceptic' camp because, despite the doom-mongering, the world still hasn't ended.
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An international survey by HSBC showed the number of people saying climate change was the biggest issue had fallen from 32% to 25% over the past year.
It is worrying that at a time when the urgency of the situation is getting clearer the non-believers are in the ascendancy.
Prof Beddington is doing his utmost to spark the public, policy makers and farmers into action to tackle the perfect storm.
As I made my way past
And no, it wasn't brought on solely by the (so-called) Christmas spectacular on stage outside the cathedral as a choir gave a perfect rendition of songs from hit musical Hairspray.
It was the anticipation before a big fight.
Like Tyson vs Lewis, David vs Golliath or this weekend's mouth-watering (?) clash between the very average English bloke and the impossibly tall fella from
But this was better, it was NFU president Peter Kendall sharing a stage with Morrisons chief executive Marc Boland.
Farmer vs supermarket. No holds barred.
And with an announcement due on the ombudsman tomorrow (and from what we're hearing it probably won't be good news) I fully expected
How disappointed I was.
To his credit, Peter gave a great speech, and pinpointed a wide range of areas where Government and farmers must do more.
But he failed, with a captive audience of supply chain executives and representatives from big retailers, to hammer home the issue.
Perhaps it was too obvious a move. A left hook, when a jab was all that was needed.
Or perhaps criticising Marc Bolland would be hugely unfair.
Because Marc was superb. Over 20 minutes he gave an impressive account of Morrisons recent turnaround and told us of all the things they are doing to help farmers.
From 'getting their hands dirty' on their own farms, to funding agricultural research and reviewing their own supply chain Morrisons has come on leaps and bounds.
All encompassed in a superb soundbyte from Mr Bolland:
"We want to get our hands dirty... we want to learn more about farming... and we want to feel what you feel."
So from the excitement, we move to a feeling of guilt on the walk back to the office - the choir now on the third act of Hairspray by the way.
Guilt that I went there presuming the worse.
Expecting Morrisons to be the bad guy and farmers to be the good guy.
Don't get me wrong, I passionately support calls for an ombudsman, and something must be done to curb retail power in the instance where it is undoubtedly abused.
But it is quite clear that for real progress the industry has to work with supermarkets in a partnership like that being fostered at Morrisons.
It's been a tough year for UK plc and as the English Food and Farming Partnership (EFFP) annual conference looked forward to the coming year one thing was clear - nobody is quite sure what lies ahead.
Yes there are so-called 'green shoots' starting to sprout.
But as the Government admits it must pump further billions into the banking sector it is clear all will not be well for some time to come.
EFFP chief executive Sion Roberts described a 'new normal' following the deepest recession in living memory.
This, he said would see growth but at a very slow rate which could mean years before we catch up with the rate of economic growth pre-2007.
For consumers there is good news as food price inflation is expected to drop.
That's inflation by the way, not prices - they will continue to rise but not as fast as they were before the recession.
Despite the rises though, food prices are as affordable in real terms - taking into account higher earnings, inflation and all that - than they were 20 years ago.
All in all a very complicated set of figures.
For farmers though the poor exchange rate and the low interest rates brought on by the recession have brought some benefits, but as NFU president Peter Kendall told the conference, it is now time farmers began preparing for the years that lie ahead.
There is no certainty where prices are concerned and while the 2007 spike in commodity prices was a freak event we can expect to see a range of peaks and troughs over the coming years.
There will be years of plenty and years of famine.
Preparing for that is a hard task, and one many farmers will be scratching their heads over.
But regardless of the ups and downs of the economy, one thing remains certain and that is if farmers look after their businesses, get the best deals on inputs and strip out unnecessary costs they will be as prepared as they can be.
