RIX Open Day 2017
Poskitt sets out farming
priorities for post-Brexit
» » NFU BOARD MEMBER GUY POSKITT
has called on the Government to create a
post-Brexit agricultural policy that will help
farmers drive their businesses forward.
Speaking at the first Rix Petroleum
Agricultural Open Day at Driffield
Showground earlier this month, he told an
audience of farmers that in his view, key
priorities for such a policy are funding,
labour, trade, and plant health.
Mr Poskitt said Brexit could bring benefits
such as a reduction in red tape, higher
prices and no longer being under EU rule.
But he warned delegates that the EU
remained British farming’s biggest export
customer and the government needed to
achieve a free trade deal.
A former Farmers Weekly Farmer of
the Year, Mr Poskitt grows vegetables
and potatoes over 6,000 acres of owned,
rented and shared land in East Yorkshire.
He started his business more than 40
years ago and now employs nearly 300
people.
Addressing the 60-strong audience, he
said: “Nobody really knows what Brexit
means for us in the future or what the
government is going to deliver for us. The
only thing we do know is we’re coming
out.
“So, what about funding? What about
labour? What about trade and what about
plant health? These are all really important
challenges we’ve got in front of us.”
Mr Poskitt said farmers need to be
profitable, productive and progressive if
they are to drive their businesses forward,
adding that he thought funding would be
cut beyond 2020.
“Currently, £2.3bn in BPS (Basic Payment
Scheme) is paid with a total of £3.2bn
through Countryside Stewardship,” he
said.
“Will this continue? I would like to think
so as it’s so important to agriculture, but
there is no doubt the mechanism will
change and the values may reduce.
“What I would like to see is that we get
less funding, but more opportunities for
funding to grow our businesses. We all
want to take agriculture to a place where
34 Summer 2017 www.farmers-mart.co.uk
Guy Poskitt addresses farmers at the first Rix
Petroleum Agricultural Open Day in Driffield.
we no longer need support because I
don’t think any farmer is proud of the fact
they get support, but to get from A to B,
sometimes you need a lot of funding.”
He said Brexit was a great opportunity
to strengthen British farming’s brand
abroad.
“We need to promote British products,”
Mr Poskitt said. “You look at the Irish,
they are a massive exporter and they’ve
promoted the brand of Irish – Irish butter,
Irish milk, Irish beef – I think it is a big
opportunity for us to do the same.”
Describing labour as a ‘hot potato’, Mr
Poskitt said horticulture employs 80,000
workers, but he pointed to other industries
to emphasise the importance of migrants
to the UK economy.
“Migrant workers are so important,
not just in agriculture but throughout our
community,” he said.
“A lot of the press have said to me ‘what
are you going to do if you don’t get your
migrant workers?’. I say simple, I’ll change
my business and become an ordinary
arable farmer growing cereals, but tell
Mrs May how she’s going to run her care
homes and health service without migrant
workers, because you don’t do it.
“The government needs to control
immigration but this myth of just send
them home won’t work because this whole
industry, our food industry, would stop.”
Mr Poskitt also called on the government
to deliver a pesticides framework that was
ready for Brexit.
He said the industry needed the right
chemistry and right research in place to
enable it to grow.
“If you look at glyphosate, there’s a lot of
noise about banning glyphosate in Europe,”
he said.
“So if it gets banned, and we’re out of
Europe, will we be able to use glyphosate if
we’re going to export to Europe? Probably
not. We need a commonsense approach.
You can’t feed people organically, that’s a
lifestyle choice. GM - everyone this side of
the pond seems to worry about GM and
run for the hills. So, you’ve got to look at
sensible pesticides that are safe and that
people understand.”
Mr Poskitt added that coming out of the
EU was an opportunity to tear up some of
the legislation that blighted UK farming and
start again with a blank sheet of paper.
Point ing to the controversial three-crop
rule, he said: “In the UK we have plenty of
diversity without bringing in that rule. All it
does is make an efficient farm inefficient.
You can have a brassica grower in
Lincolnshire or a carrot grower in Yorkshire,
suddenly they have to grow other crops
to satisfy the three-crop rule. Is it going
to change the diversity of the countryside
and is it going to change the mix of crops?
Absolutely not.”
Other speakers at the event included
Duncan Lambert, director of Rix Petroleum,
Julia Mansfield, technical manager at
Exocet, Mark Todd, UK wholesale business
manager from global energy company
Phillips 66 and Mike Philips of Q8 Oils UK.
It was the first time that Rix Petroleum
has hosted an agricultural open day, but the
company is looking to make it an annual
date in the farming calendar.
Duncan Lambert said: “We have a close
relationship with the farming community
and we have often been asked if we
can put on an event that will bring them
together.
“The Agricultural Open Day aimed at
doing just that. We had some interesting
and thought-provoking talks, so hopefully
everyone went away feeling a little bit more
informed.”