UK’s NFU outlines vision for post-Brexit agriculture

The UK’s National Farmers’ Union (NFU) released a paper Wednesday outlining its vision of post-Brexit agricultural policy. In addition to provisions to increase agricultural productivity and protect the wider environment, the NFU identified the importance of measures to calm market volatility through a new domestic agriculture policy.

Proposed actions to achieve its aim include greater provision of market data and information, countercyclical revenue insurance schemes, and a ceiling on the World Trade Organisation’s so-called Amber Box policies which are considered to distort production and trade.

The paper comes with the caveat that the industry remains at the mercy of the UK’s wider Brexit negotiations, with wider timeline on the implementation of policy difficult to determine without greater clarity from the UK government and the EU.

As such, the NFU explains it is currently expecting a legacy version of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to remain in place for the foreseeable future after the UK leaves the EU in March 2019.

The report comes as UK farmland prices were reported to have enjoyed a 5% rise in value between July and September, partially offsetting a 19% decrease in the value of farmland between April 2015 and June 2017.

As Agrimoney reported Tuesday, real estate consultancy Strutt & Parker identified soaring demand from investors and unexpected tightness in supply appearing over the previous quarter.

Over the previous decade, private investors have extended their control of UK agricultural land from 8% to over 20%. Buyers have sought to repurpose the holding for lifestyle purposes, as well as to take advantage of UK law which exempts working agricultural land from inheritance taxes. Farmers, meanwhile, are reportedly deferring land sales as they seek greater clarity on the shape of the UK’s post-Brexit agricultural policy.

These factors contributed to the average price of arable cropping land in the UK increasing to £9,100 per acre ($4,850 per hectare). However, Strutt & Parker note English arable land prices at 15% below their 2015 peak, and down 2% on year, as wider, Brexit-linked macroeconomic uncertainty weighs on the market.