Baroness Minette Batters has been appointed to head Defra’s review into farm profitability. The review will feed into the 25-Year Farming Roadmap as well as the Land Use Framework and the Food Strategy. It covers England only. Baroness Batters will be supported by a team of Defra officials – presumably the new ‘Farm Profitability Unit’ as announced by Steve Reed at the NFU Conference in February. The review will also be consulting widely with the industry.
The position of Farming Profitability Review Lead is for six months, indicating the final report will be finalised sometime in September or October. The report aims to make recommendations on policies both the Government and industry could implement to improve farm profitability. It is highlighted that these must be ‘pragmatic’ and will look at the short, medium, and long term. It is stated that this is an ‘internal report submitted to the Secretary of State for his review‘ – but presumably the results will be made public.
The full terms of reference can be found here – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/farming-profitability-review-terms-of-reference/farming-profitability-review-terms-of-reference . This sets out three main issues for Baroness Batters to consider;
- how farmers can reduce barriers to profitability, increase profit and manage their own risk to improve financial resilience, such as through embracing innovation, improving productivity, increasing market access and using risk management tools
- how the supply chain can support farm profitability such as through greater transparency, cooperation and ensuring a fairer distribution of risks, rewards and responsibilities
- whether there are other ancillary activities that farmers can undertake to support profitability and wider economic growth.
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