opinion SETTING PRIORITIES


Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Freedom Day duly occurred on the appointed date of 19 July, despite questions around lifting the restrictions at a time when there was growing concern that coronavirus cases were still increasing. But Johnson’s ‘Freedom Day’, while it ended over a year of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in England, was also widely welcomed, despite being marred by a surging rate of infections and redoubled warnings of impending supermarket and associated shortages. Supply chain issues affect most if not all businesses, including the


livestock feed sector. It is reported that many companies have suffered ‘considerable disruption’ in global trade networks, that has contributed to a decrease in sales over recent months. The impact of the disruption was epitomized in the July data for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the UK, showing a rise of just 0.1 per cent. For the livestock feed industry, HGV drivers for feed manufacturers


are, self-evidently, a major source of concern. While there has been widespread public comment on the shortage of HGV drivers, the livestock feed industry relies on, as one correspondent put it, ‘wheels for a very fast-moving Supply Chain’, both for raw material intake and, obviously, supply of finished feed to customers, both of which run on a just-in-time basis. They are, therefore, very sensitive to driver availability. No drivers potentially mean that the mill shuts down for lack of raw material or that the customer runs out of feed, so the availability is a key strategic concern for the feed industry and is widely set to be the industry’s key issue this winter, in the context of the residual impact of Coronavirus or the prospect of further outbreaks as the UK moves into the flu season. The Brexit supply line has been an issue with the importing of


products from Europe but this aspect seems to have eased a little by now or have been masked by the more pervasive HGV Driver issue, which is evidentially not confined to the post-Brexit UK. However, the operational matters arising from the pandemic, particularly those generated by the disruption of the industry’s supply chain, are clearly important and need urgently to be addressed by management. However, the need to keep the longer-term issues in focus is also of continuing relevance. The government has been engaged in a major investigation of


the future of agriculture in the UK, culminating in the Agriculture Act of 2020. The Act received Royal Assent, after ‘a turbulent and bumpy road’ through the legislative process. The NFU has described it as a ‘landmark moment for post-Brexit farming’. The aim of the Act was to establish a ‘new agricultural system, based on the principle of public


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money for public goods for the next generation of farmers and land managers’. The initial indications of the direction of future government policy


as regards agriculture in the UK are broadly promising, when viewed from the perspective of the livestock feed industry. The indications are that the environment and food security will be primary issues to be addressed. It is reported that the Government will be required to report to Parliament on food security every three years and that the newly formed Trade and Agriculture Commission is also expected to monitor the impact of any post-Brexit trade deals, such as that recently agreed with Australia, on the food and farming industry. The Basic Payment Scheme, the current form of EU farming subsidy support, will be withdrawn in England by gradual reductions from next year onwards, ending completely by 2028, with a new domestic financial support system for agriculture in England expected to focus on ‘public funds for public goods’. What is concerning is what form the public funds for public goods might take and whether they will plug the gap left by the withdrawal of the Basic Payment Scheme. The feed industry should not expect answers to these questions


in the short-term. A proper analysis of the future role to be played by agriculture in the UK will require a rigorous assessment of the alternatives, including a root and branch assessment of the extent of what proportion of how self-sufficient the UK wishes to be when it comes to debate the future of agriculture in Britain. Brexit has served to highlight a number of deficiencies in the


supply chains not just in the livestock feed industry but across the business economy as a whole. It may reasonably be expected that these deficiencies do not just apply to the United Kingdom but to most if not all industrialized economies across the globe. Post-pandemic, management should be turning its attention to the most egregious of these deficiencies with a clear remit to remedy. Government, too, has a clear role to play in that there is a significant contribution to be made by bodies such as the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), given the fact that there is a backlog of candidates awaiting their heavy vehicle driving tests. However, it remains that those charged with representing the


broader interests of the economy should also be prioritizing the more fundamental aspects of their concerns. While their priorities clearly need to be reviewed in the context both of day-to-day management concerns, there is also the need to take longer term strategic issues into account, particularly in the context of the government’s ongoing considerations.


Comment section is sponsored by Compound Feed Engineering Ltd www.cfegroup.com


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