The House of Commons’ Welsh Affairs Committee recently released a report into family farms and highlighted a number of concerns that we have previously raised by NFU Cymru, writes president Aled Jones.

Here in Wales, family farms make an unparalleled contribution to the economic, environmental, cultural and social fabric of the country. The way in which our patchwork of family farms contribute to the very fabric of Wales means that it is often difficult to assign a monetary value to their contribution.

NFU Cymru is firmly of the view that Wales would be culturally impoverished if our family farming structure were to be harmed or diminished in any way.

Farmers in Wales maintain the Welsh landscape, they also continue to maintain its language and cultural traditions, and in doing so preserve our heritage and sense of place for future generations.

Farmers are extremely proud of the quality and standards to which we produce food here in Wales with top quality PGI Welsh Lamb and Beef being produced across the country.

Producing to these standards does come at a cost and we want to ensure that looking to the future the ability to continue to offer the consumer great tasting, high quality, climate friendly Welsh beef and lamb is not undermined from the importation of vast amounts of products from countries who, as a result of different regulatory requirements, land availability and climatic conditions, have a cost base vastly lower than our own.

We are concerned by the apparent lack of any meaningful safeguards in the details of the trade deals we have seen so far. It appears that vast amount of beef and lamb will be allowed into the UK with limited scope for the UK Government to intervene if this is causing damage to domestic food production.

The true cost of these deals may not be known for some years to come.

This is why NFU Cymru also welcomed the recommendation of the committee that the UK Government should publish a statement on the impact of free trade agreements (FTAs) on the agricultural sector in Wales.