Recently, NFU Cymru has had some quite extensive engagement with politicians from across the political parties at a range of events. We welcomed The Rt Hon Alastair Carmichael MP, Chair of the House of Commons’ Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee to NFU Cymru Council in Cardiff. We were also joined by Reform MS Laura-Anne Jones, Sam Kurtz MS from the Welsh Conservatives, Plaid Cymru’s Llyr Gruffydd MS, Jane Dodds MS from the Welsh Liberal Democrats and the Deputy First Minister, Huw Irranca-Davies MS.

NFU Cymru and NFU Officeholders travelled to London to meet with the EFRA Committee for a morning of discussions on issues such as international trade, the UK/EU reset and addressing supply chain fairness. Whilst in London we also met with Mims Davies MP (Shadow Secretary of State for Wales), David Chadwick MP, Kanishka Narayan MP, Ruth Jones MP, Tonia Antoniazzi MP, Ben Lake MP, Ann Davies MP and Andrew Ranger MP. We thanked those MPs who had supported us, both publicly and behind the scenes, in our campaign against IHT, whilst also discussing international trade, the SPS agreement between the UK and EU, the challenges in the dairy sector and future funding for Welsh agriculture. At the end of that week, NFU Cymru were really pleased to be joined by MSs Janet Finch-Saunders and Llyr Gruffydd at NFU Cymru’s suckler cow report launch in Colwyn Bay.

By mid-February Welsh party conference season was underway where we hosted joint fringe events with the FUW, covering off the shared asks of both unions for the next Senedd and Welsh Government in terms of agricultural and rural policy.

We had our regular meeting with the Deputy First Minister where we covered a range of topics, including budgets, the SFS and water quality. NFU Cymru welcomed Sir Mark Tami MP out to farm in a meeting kindly hosted by John and Vyrna Bletcher on their dairy farm near Mold. The Green Party’s Leader in Wales, Anthony Slaughter, came out to Abi Reader’s farm where we discussed a range of issues including public procurement, red-tape, and bureaucracy as well as funding for agriculture. We also had a meeting with Reform to discuss agricultural and rural policy, and to highlight to them NFU Cymru’s manifesto priorities for the forthcoming elections.

At NFU Conference, our officeholders were able to meet with Defra Secretary of State Emma Reynolds and Shadow Secretary of State Victoria Atkins where they raised issues including the lamb tail docking and castration consultation, supply chain fairness and agricultural budgets. Former President Aled Jones hosted UK Government Security Minister Dan Jarvis MP on his farm where they discussed international trade and standards, food security, farm support budgets, and border biosecurity.

It has been a busy period of political engagement for our new officeholder team and something which will continue.