“The last six months have been completely dominated by Covid-19 issues but at last discussions are moving back to Brexit, now less than 12 weeks away and many things are still incredibly unclear. The GB/Northern Ireland issue is still very unresolved whilst if there is No Deal then there will be real implications for dairy trade. So, at the next meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), Dairy on 21st October 2020 we will be focusing on this issue. RABDF, along with Dairy UK, provide the Secretariat for this APPG. Let us hope that this latest round of negotiations between the UK and the EU lead to some substantive ways forward.
Trade talks are ongoing with Australia, Canada, and the USA. The most advanced is a Free Trade Agreement with Japan. Historically Japan has always been a good market opportunity for milk and milk products because of the Japanese diet but most of this is now supplied by New Zealand and to a lesser extent Australia.
It would appear that the dairy farming sector has lost the battle with the Home Office and particularly the Migration Advisory Committee on EU labour coming to work as herdsman/herd managers. The Home Office simply do not believe that there is an issue. RABDF is now working up some practical approaches based upon apprenticeship schemes and possibly building on the Entrepreneurs in Dairy course that we have run at various colleges for the past 7 years. What we have found is that Government is looking for solutions not just moaning!”
Tim Brigstocke, RABDF Policy Director