Some good news at last out of Brussels

Published on Wednesday 7 November 2007 00:14

THE past three months have been nothing short of hell for the farming industry: a mere eight cases of foot-and-mouth disease in Surrey among a bunch of hobby farmers - who clearly were more interested in seeing their investment in land values increase rather than supervising the welfare of their cattle and sheep - plunged the entire livestock industry into total crisis.

Those of us who where charged with cataloguing the world's worst foot-and-mouth epidemic throughout the late spring and subsequent six months in 2001 have found the most recent crisis even more taxing, especially in terms of dealing with a farming community, which thought it was just about on the point of recovery.

Bluetongue disease then blew over the Channel, courtesy of a handful of midges: sheep became exceedingly devalued and many questioned the wisdom of even putting the rams out to mate with breeding flocks. The ultimate question related to the point of how hill farmers could survive another disastrous season when the price of their lambs was no higher than 30 years ago.

But at last there is some good news with the health authorities in Brussels announcing late yesterday that exports of beef and lamb could resume, probably from early next week.

A decade ago the trade in beef was worth at least 150 million with lamb chipping in at over 30m.

It will take some days before that trade can resume, but the traffic lights are now once again at green.

Stewart Wood, the vice-president of NFU Scotland, said: "The details of the decisions in Brussels are still sketchy, but it looks like very good news. It will take a long time to recover all our export markets, but we will continue to fight on every front. Scotland is once more back in business in Europe."

As Wood made clear, patience will be required before bank managers are once again happy. However, the fact remains that Scotch beef and lamb is regarded as the ultimate quality produce in Europe and throughout much of the world. The onus is now on producers to prove that without doubt that they can deliver. Reputations do not last forever.