MP hits at export body axe

Mar 27 2008 by Tom Patterson, The Journal

LIBERAL Democrat MP and chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Hill Farming Tim Farron is angry at the closure of Food from Britain.

The decision to wind up the body – responsible for promoting British food abroad – came after Defra announced that the public funding for the body of around £4.7m each year was to be phased out by 2010/11.

Defra is currently in the midst of a funding crisis, with one of the Government ministers responsible recently admitting to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee that the animal welfare arm was to lose a third of its resources.

Mr Farron has now launched an Early Day Motion in Parliament calling on the Government to safeguard the Food from Britain organisation in order to enhance British farm exports.

The MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale said: “It is very worrying that a service such as this, which helps all kinds of British food and drink companies to export their goods and better their business, should be wound up due to bad financial management at Defra.

“At the NFU conference, Gordon Brown talked of the importance of farmers to the British economy, but this cut means that he will be reducing a key service which helps farmers to export their produce.

“The Government must act now to put an end to the financial difficulties facing Defra, and answer the difficult questions facing it – why is Defra having economic problems, who is to blame and why won’t they act now before the countryside loses more valuable schemes?”

The National Farmers Union said it was backing Mr Farron in his efforts to get the Government to safeguard the body.

An NFU spokesman said: “This is a sad day for British farming. In withdrawing funding from Food from Britain the Government is sending completely the wrong signals to farmers and growers about where its priorities lie.”