Every year, UK political parties hold their annual conferences, bringing together politicians, party members, stakeholders such as ourselves, thinktanks, businesses, media outlets and charities. Party conferences provide political parties with the opportunity to enjoy significant profile for their key people and valuable coverage for their policy pronouncements. For organisations such as NFU Cymru they are a valuable opportunity to speak directly with politicians and raise industry issues with them.
The union has attended a number of conferences this year. These have given us an important opportunity to meet with politicians from rural and urban backgrounds, sharing members' concerns over the current proposals for Welsh Government’s Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS).
Budget
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NFU Cymru has used, and continue to use, these events as an opportunity to push forward our key ask of Government; that is an agricultural budget that allows us to be able to meet our ambitions to be world leading in the production of climate friendly food against a backdrop where nature is thriving on our farms. Farmers are being asked to deliver more than ever before in terms of food, climate, and nature and it is only right that there is adequate budget in place to deliver this.
Given the inflationary pressures weighing on farmers up and down the country, one of our key messages to the Labour party in Liverpool was to ensure farming businesses can continue to deliver high-quality, affordable, and climate-friendly food for the nation while also protecting and caring for our environment.
Other Party Conferences
The Conservative Party conference in Birmingham will be up next, followed by Plaid Cymru’s conference, NFU Cymru will also be meeting with the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats shortly for a wide-ranging discussion on the challenges facing Welsh agriculture.
The engaging stand in Liverpool brought to life all of our diverse agri-sectors, featuring a glasshouse and milking parlour along with grassland, field margins and trees. This year, we asked political delegates to pledge their support for farming by signing an apple to hang on our tree and we provided apple juice tastings and samples of cheese to make for a memorable visit.
Political engagement
Engaging with the political parties at their conference is an increasingly important part of our role especially with so much at stake in Wales with some key policy decisions pending, whilst in Westminster of course all eyes will very shortly be on the UK Government’s budget on 30 October.