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Navarian@lemm.ee

Why Welsh farmers should all be passionate, fervent supporters of an Independent Wales (nation.cymru)

submitted 1 year ago by Navarian@lemm.ee to c/wales@lemm.ee

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Jacob Rees Mogg wants hormone injected cheap beef from Australia on his plate. The grass fed, high welfare, superior quality beef grown in Wales dismissed in favour of cheap meat from the other side of the globe.

Any Welsh farmers who still haven’t realised that independence offers them the best future need to sit down and give very serious thought to how they see the future of farming developing within the UK. To where their farm, their livelihood, the land they love and the children who’ll inherit it, will be in 20 years.

There’s plenty to discuss in terms of the future of rural Wales and the potential offered by Independence, hopefully the blindness of central government to the realities of rural life and agriculture (on both sides of the political spectrum) are already generating significant debate and discussion on the constitutional future of Wales within the sector.

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[–] tal@lemmy.today 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Jacob Rees Mogg wants hormone injected cheap beef from Australia on his plate. The grass fed, high welfare, superior quality beef grown in Wales dismissed in favour of cheap meat from the other side of the globe.

Any Welsh farmers who still haven’t realised that independence offers them the best future need to sit down and give very serious thought to how they see the future of farming developing within the UK.

Hmm.

googles

For 2021:

https://ahdb.org.uk/news/uk-beef-imports-up-exports-down-2021-trade-review

During December, the UK imported 23,300 tonnes of fresh and frozen beef, down 9% year-on-year. This brought total imports for 2021 to 241,300 tonnes, up 4% compared to 2020, and close to the quantity imported in 2019 (+1%).

For the last month of 2021, the UK exported 10,500 tonnes of fresh and frozen beef, down 5% year-on-year. This brought total exports for the full year to 102,900 tonnes, down 12% compared to 2020.

https://ahdb.org.uk/news/how-much-beef-did-the-uk-produce-in-2021

The December figures meant that 886,000 tonnes of beef and veal was produced in the UK in 2021, 5% lower than the year before.

So in tonnes for 2021:

Exports: 102,900

Imports: 241,300

Production: 886,000

So about 15.5% of above domestic production is net import. Generally, if you're a net beef producing region (Wales), you'd rather be in a net beef-consuming market (the UK) than out.

No internal UK trade with Wales numbers, though.

googles

https://meatpromotion.wales/en/industry-statistics

Annual production of...beef...in Wales (2021) : 40,300 tonnes

5% of beef from Wales is consumed in Wales, approximately 80% is consumed in the rest of the UK, and 15% is consumed in export markets.

So a huge chunk of the Welsh beef market is non-Welsh United Kingdom.

Unless Wales is a particularly-heavy beef consuming region in the UK, particularly likes consuming non-Welsh British beef -- which we don't have enough data there to make a call on -- and independence would lead to Welsh consumers being forced to each more Welsh beef to substitute for non-Welsh British beef, I expect that in terms of Welsh beef producers, it would be better for Wales to have low barriers with the rest of the UK in beef trade, not high. One would expect them to be worse off in terms of relative beef supply and demand were Wales independent.

[–] Navarian@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

This is incredibly interesting, appreciate you doing the leg work.

Interesting note that we're still (2021) importing more than double the amount we export. A not insignificant amount.

It would be interesting to see where and in what quality this imported meat is/is from.

Something else potentially interesting is the possible relationship between the cost of living crisis and the consumption of beef not only across the UK, but in Wales specifically.