David Hall, NFU regional director, asks if Government will secure a trade deal with Europe.

THE autumn and winter months are usually a key time when we engage with members. These usually include AGMs in each county and branches, along with commodity meetings, each giving an update on the latest changes to policy in each sector.

Sadly, we are now pretty much confined to barracks and becoming ever more proficient at Zoom and Teams calls.

I do feel that there is only so much information you can take in this way, but we must embrace this as part of the way we will communicate going forward, but I do hope that this is not what the future looks like.

The use of technology means we can speak to a lot more people more easily and access the expertise that lies in our HQ team.

They don’t need to jump in the car for a three-hour drive north to attend a two-hour branch meeting. We can now have them join a meeting for a 20 minute conversation and then leave members to discuss what they have heard.

I do hope it will not be too long before we can get groups of members together, as there are significant policy announcements that are likely to be made before the end of the year.

The two main ones will be the announcement from George Eustice regarding what the future transition and funding landscape will look like and the other will be if we have managed to secure a trade deal with Europe.

We are told that the announcement about the future for agricultural transition cannot happen until the Comprehensive Spending Review, which we believe is now set for about now.

I hope that November does not turn into December as I do think that farmers deserve to know what the future funding landscape will look like to help them plan.

Many sectors such as horticulture, potatoes and cereals have had a very challenging 2020 and will be hoping that 2021 is a more positive year in relation to the market, as well as the weather.

On the second point relating to the free trade agreement with Europe, I really do hope that by the time you are reading this it has been agreed.

Whether there is a deal or not, the market will find a solution, and everything will find a price. I remain positive there will be opportunities, but one thing is for certain, exporting products to Europe will not be the same as it is now.

The NFU has fought tirelessly on the issue of food standards so that parliament has chance to scrutinise any new trade deals that are done around the world.

Let’s hope that new trade deals are not simply a vehicle to further drive down food prices and this clearly demonstrates the need for a Food and Farming Commission to look at future trade deals and ensure parliamentary scrutiny. It will be down to the MPs to vote to secure such scrutiny in law and I do hope they do the right thing by our sector and their constituents.

Let’s remember how far we have come on the standards journey and what has been achieved - over 1 million signatures on the petition.