Guest View: Misinformed rhetoric on trade deals must be challenged

Having just returned from Australia as part of my Nuffield Farming travels, I was disappointed to see some misinformed rhetoric lambasting ‘poor production standards and cheap inputs’ which we so commonly hear from the press – often at the behest of UK farming organisations – and I wanted to share my own findings.

With any trade deal, there is a risk of goods displacing or undercutting our own domestic agri-food producers and this comes at a particularly difficult time when some producers are still faced with astronomical input costs and struggling to cover costs of production, let alone make a profit.

We are seeing a drop in levels of domestic production and should be concerned about imports filling gaps on the shelf if we can’t meet demand, but this is about more than trade deals, it is about some retailers not paying farmers a fair price and uncertainty over agricultural policy curtailing confidence and growth across many sectors.

There is no denying that the UK Government did not act in the interests of UK farmers when negotiating these FTAs. It was a quick, ill-thought out attempt by then trade secretary, Liz Truss, to conclude terms ahead of the G7 summit in 2021 and to tick a Brexit promise – and in the process failed to listen to farmers and stakeholders, plus not engaging with the devolved governments.

There has not been proper scrutiny on these deals and former Defra secretary, George Eustice, even admitted that the Australian FTA is ‘not actually a very good deal for the UK’ and accused the Department for International Trade of internalising Australian demands often against UK interests – farming was absolutely used as a political bargaining chip.

So, yes, I am hugely concerned by the UK Government’s handling of these trade deals and the concessions that were made, however I don’t believe the approach of condemning the practices of Australian and New Zealand farmers is how we should move forward.

Although I agree the UK should be prioritising building stronger, more resilient domestic food supply chains, we need to avoid creating an ‘us and them’ dialogue when, ultimately, farmers in all of these countries are striving for the same outcomes and facing similar challenges - sometimes much worse in fact, when we see how water shortages and disease pressures threaten farming livelihoods in parts of Australia.

When I spoke with farmers in Cairns, I could have been speaking to Scottish farmers when hearing how labour shortages were crippling the industry and problems they were facing with visa schemes. I visited papaya and avocado farms where workers were being paid a minimum $30 per hour, so to hear people saying we could be undermined by countries with lower costs of production is not only untrue but insulting to farmers having to absorb these costs.

Many Australians spoke of fraught relations with supermarkets and huge issues with perfectly good produce not hitting unrealistic specifications and being rejected – a familiar story. One organic grower told me that in 2022, 4% of his bananas were rejected despite being extremely high quality, due to specification from retailers that any blemish on the skin had to be less than 4mm.

I was blown away by some of the steps farmers were taking in Australia to protect their livelihoods, particularly around biosecurity, with banana farmers enforcing strict measures due to fears of Panama disease and beef farmers deeply concerned about a foot and mouth disease outbreak in Indonesia, given the huge volume of cattle they send there.

These farmers are quite literally on the frontline when it comes to feeling the brunt of climate change. I was in the tropical part of Australia, but it didn’t stop me hearing about issues around severe drought and wildfires in other regions, and the devastation this has caused farmers in loss of land, income and heartbreakingly, livestock.

One farmer told me how he had whole orchards wiped out by cyclones and had to rethink planting to withstand future threats. Freak weather events are destroying confidence in farming.

When I spoke with farmers about export opportunities and plans for expansion, the majority spoke of the Asian market, with most saying they had no interest in exporting much further afield, ie to the UK. I don’t believe we will see our supermarkets swamped with Australian produce any time soon but, of course, it will increase, but so too will the input and climate challenges facing our competitors.

I feel lucky to be doing a Nuffield Farming scholarship, as it is giving me the opportunity to travel around the world and gauge my own thoughts and hear directly from farmers about both the pressures, and opportunities within farming in their countries.

I have realised from travelling how much bigger the challenges are facing other countries in terms of climate pressures and social inequalities, and how too often we are unaware of the scale and pace of these threats when focussing on our own doorstep.

When we explore future trade deals, there has to be more mindful negotiation and active listening by UK Government ministers to those on the ground, but there also has to be more mindful coverage by the media and public discourse, and a rethink of the condemnation we too readily direct at those in other countries that we often know very little about.

Ultimately, food producers here and around the world have a huge task to play in producing enough food to meet population growth. We have a duty to protect domestic food security but there is also our moral obligation to distribute our food globally, particularly protein, to those who need it the most.

Food producers also have a huge role to play in tackling the biodiversity and climate crises but ultimately it will come down to a unified global effort which will require us to work together and be sympathetic to one another’s unique circumstances and challenges. No one can be left behind on this journey.