Farming: Outbreak of harmony at opening NFU hustings

Sorting out the supermarkets and getting a reasonable return for producers from the supply chain, recognising that the next few years would be extremely important for CAP support measures and keeping NFUS membership numbers up.

These were the key issues which figured in the address of all candidates at Thursday night's NFUS hustings in Perth, writes Brian Henderson.

So much harmony had broken out that when the two contenders for the president's post - Fife farmer Allan Bowie and Border producer Nigel Miller - came head to head, scarcely a cigarette paper's thickness of difference was evident between their priorities.

Both candidates stressed the importance of a team approach to ensure that all the diverse areas of Scotland's farming community would be covered, quelling any of the old fears of a livestock/arable imbalance.

Bowie, who has been vice-president for two years and has stated he will also stand for re-election to this post, stressed the importance of getting the supply chain sorted out.

"If the retailers want good food - which means choice, quality and provenance - they have to realise that this comes at a price. If they screw the price down than there will come a day they won't have that choice

On the support front, Bowie stressed that to be heard in Europe the union had to make sure that it had some influence in Westminster as well as at Holyrood, suggesting that this might be an area where the Union could up its game.

Miller, who has been vice-president for four years, said that with food security once more becoming a major political issue, farmers should be in a good place - but actually many were only just holding on.

He said that on the supply chain front consumers recognised that farmers were under the cosh

Miller recognised that many producers lived constantly under the shadow of inspections and penalties and criticised the powers of EU auditors in forcing member states into implementing knee-jerk reactions.