No-deal Brexit could pose threat to sector, says farming boss

As the Royal Welsh Show opened Mr Davies revealed he will sent a letter to the new PM tomorrow to outline how vital the EU export market is to the Welsh agricultural industry.

He will also impress that animal welfare and environmental standards should be recognised and valued, as well as ensuring Welsh agriculture does not lose out on a penny of funding as a result of Brexit.

He said: “This is a pivotal and critical time for the food and farming sector – the industry most affected by the decision to leave the European Union. We face the challenge of breaking away from almost half a century of participation in the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, alongside the opportunity of designing and implementing a bespoke policy for Welsh farming.

“It also means founding completely new trading relationships with the EU27 and the rest of the world."

Mr Davies said Europe was Britain's nearest and most valuable export market with 72 per cent of Welsh food and drink exports destined for EU countries.

Standards

"It is a market where we currently enjoy frictionless, tariff-free access to the 500m or so consumers on our doorstep," he added.

"In the case of our Welsh lamb about 95 per cent of what we export going to the EU. If we were to leave without a deal, then we know that the high tariffs on our exports into this market would mean that we would simply be unable to compete.

“At the same time we know, following the publication of the UK Government’s ‘no-deal’ tariff schedules back in the spring, that most agricultural products would enter the UK from the EU and the rest of the world with zero or reduced tariffs.

"A ‘no-deal’ Brexit would therefore mean the double blow of not only being priced out of our principal export markets, but also having agri-food products coming into the UK from third countries and outcompeting domestic producers.”

“We must not allow our high standards to be undermined by a trade policy which allows food produced to standards that would be deemed illegal here being allowed to enter into the UK. Our standards of animal welfare and environmental management should instead form a benchmark for global standards.

“By working together, I am confident that we can deliver what we need in order to secure the future of our rural communities, maintain and uphold our high standards of production, properly recognise the strategic importance of domestic primary production and the manufacturing base it underpins, as well as ensuring a secure supply of healthy, affordable food.”