This week marks the FUW’s 65th birthday. There were some at the start who thought we’d only last three months, but here we are 65 years later, still serving our members and Welsh agriculture, writes Bryn Francis.

We are here today because of the vision of the founder members who have worked so hard and I have no doubt in my mind that all of us will do everything we can to honour those founding members and ensure that their vision of a strong voice for the industry remains at the core of the FUW’s principles.

There have been many obstacles for us as an organisation and of course agriculture along the way – but together we have always found a way to solve the problems and overcome the challenges.

Some struggles today of course are not so different to what they were 65 years ago, others such as Brexit, Covid-19 and climate change present new challenges for us as an organisation and industry.

With less than four weeks to go until the end of the EU withdrawal period, claims by Prime Minister Boris Johnson that the UK ‘will prosper’ without an EU trade deal are a real concern.

We have, throughout all of this, maintained our long-held view that we must get Brexit done safely, over a realistic timescale that ensures a UK- EU trade deal which delivers full access to EU markets with minimum non-tariff barriers for our Welsh produce.

We have been relentless in lobbying politicians to ensure that our industry isn’t any worse off as a result of new policies and trade deals, making it very clear that the new Agriculture Bill had to at the very minimum ensure food imported to the UK meets UK standards.

When the FUW’s warnings were ignored and the newly passed Agriculture Act received Royal Assent, we were clear that this could open the door to devastating impacts on farming and rural communities if the UK Government does not place food security and the wellbeing of farming families and rural communities at the centre of policy development.

There is no doubt in our mind that you cannot cut yourself off from the worlds biggest economy and trading block at the height of a global pandemic, during the worst recession for a century and having borrowed a third of a trillion to cope and think it’s going to go well – so I really hope that an acceptable UK-EU trade deal will be reached or is on the horizon.

As a Union we know that family farms in particular are at the heart of our rural economy, caring for our landscape, and of course our culture, and they make innumerable other contributions to the well-being of Wales and the UK. That’s why we will keep serving members and agriculture - to ensure that there are thriving sustainable family farms here in Wales for many more generations to come.