Nuffield Pre Contemporary Conference - London

What a day we had yesterday (Friday 8^th March), with a real mixed bag of presentations and discussion.  Our morning started with a walk from the Union Jack Club to the treasury where we were met by Brendan Bailey (Head of Structural Reform Branch).  The presentation he gave us was a mixed bag of slides telling the story of the main aspects that were important to the treasury, namely Policy Interest, Food Security, Economic and Financial costs, the change in food prices and Ag trade barriers.  One thing that was really drummed home to us was the massive competition from the far East and especially China and India.  We learnt that China and India produce 1/3 of the worlds grain.

Our second meeting (in three different rooms), was a fantastic presentation by Allan Wilkinson, Head of Agriculture at HSBC.  Allan’s presentation was engaging, knowledgable, thought provoking, challenging (he said it would be) and it got lots of discussion going.  These discussion continued through the day and into the evening.

After lunch we headed across to DEFRA, (Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), not no Agriculture, where after security checks we headed upstairs for a meeting with Martin Nesbit (Director of European Union and International DEFRA).  Here we discussed, quite heatedly a range of subjects but mainly the implications of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the new measures that could potentially affect all of our farming businesses for the next 7 years.  The CAP in effect will be cut so farmers will be receiving less support in the future through direct payments (Pillar 1) or indirect environmental support payments (Pillar 2).  It was very interesting to hear and talk about how the UK farmers will be effected by some of the new measures more than some of our European farming cousins.  Following the meeting we even got mentioned in a tweet from Martin, which was actually rather pleasing!

After Martin we popped next door, literally, to meet up with Matthew Ward from the London National Farmers Union (NFU) Office and Peter Kendall  the NFU President.  Here we heard about the lobbying work that takes place on the industries behalf by the team in London (and Brussels).  ONe of the major points that came across from the afternoon meeting Peter was the need to continue of efforts in educating the general public, our customers about farming and engaging them to take more interest in their food production system, buy local and buy British. 

Another message we drew form the whole day was the lack of a joined up sustainable plan to take our Agricultural Industry forward, at a time when global food issues will start to affect our food supply, this was something that was not deemed important by one of our speakers today.  Food security is a global issue, not a UK issue and to me that opinion is flawed, shortsighted and arrogant.  A plan will need to be 20 years in duration, covering the whole industry from planning to public perception to the environment, bio-security, biodiversity, food supply chain issues and many others.  This strategy needs to be wide ranging; cover many governmental departments and should ultimately be steered by our government.

What a very challenging day it was.  Now it’s off to Heathrow for the flight to Toronto and the Contemporary Scholars Conference!

Nuffield Pre Contemporary Scholars Conference -London

Our Nuffield adventure has finally begun.  After weeks of preparation, excitement, nervousness and apprehension we are finally together in London and our study tour is underway.  After meeting up last night for a drink or two in the bar at The Union Jack Club it was an early start this morning to head to the House of Lords to meet Baroness Byford.  Hazel; as we can now call her, gave us an excellent insight into the roles the Lords have to play in the law making process in this country.  It's job that they have for life, no retirement the only way out is illness or death!  Hazel managed to squeeze us all into the house viewing gallery to listen and watch the daily questions from the peers.  This was interesting enough until the first debate started, at which point 60% of the peers got up and left the house.  We all thought this was a little odd, but I guess if you're not interested in the topic and you could be doing something more positive then fair point, but it must be a bit depressing if you are giving the talk and the majority of people get up and walk out!  The building was incredible, steeped in history and very calming.  Unfortunately we couldn't take any pictures so if you are anywhere near, do try and go along. 

 After the House of Lords we headed off to the Farmers club, a short walk away, to listen to a short speech from Lord De Mauley.  It left us a little wanting in answers which was a shame really.  During lunch His Royal Highness The Duke of Gloucester spent an hour and a half talking to us in small groups about our various study topics.  I have to say what a great man, very knowledgeable, interested, funny and full of enthusiasm for Nuffield and for the opportunity we all have before us.

After our lunch we headed back to the Union Jack Club for our afternoon session run by Adam West from Natural England all about how valuing and promoting what farmers do for the environment - can we do better?.  We split up into groups to work on various questions.  Adam was aided by Guy Smith, Pol Christenson and David Gardner who all gave an insight into where they saw the industry interacting with our customers.

It was a long day, nicely rounded off in a pub round the corner with some great company.  

I had a really interesting day yesterday, (and I have to say I was very privileged), to be invited to attend the annual trade briefing by Sainsbury's held in London at the Queen Elizabeth II building.  (How that got planning permission I will never know but that's another story!).  The aim of the event is for the management team at Sainsbury's to get their suppliers together and tell them (us) points of interest about past performance, future plans, business development, supplier relationships and how the economy will be affecting everyones business over the coming months.

First on was Justin King, who gave an interesting insight into customers buying habits.  As always a great presentation, and as someone who does some public speaking I really admire!  Justin mentioned the pressure that houshold budgets are under, shoppers are buying less (2% year on year) and wasting less food.  Investment plans were also mentioned with plans to invest £1bn to grow the estate.  Sales, like for like, are up but only slightly at 0.9% excluding fuel, which is better than some competitors.  He also mentioned Sainsbury's own brand labels growing 3 times faster than branded products as more shoppers are looking in more detail about where the pennies go.  We can all relate to that!  Contributions to the performance are coming through from the basics range, Brand Match and Taste the Difference, all backed up with shopper buying habits recorded through the nectar card.  He also mentioned the importance of customer trust in the brand, this is something that resonates with us at Overbury.  Your customers have to trust what you are doing if you are going to keep them and encourage them to engage more with you. 

James Waldon was next up, the IGD's Chief Economist, and again I have to take my hat off to James.  He made economics interesting (wish I had felt that way at college).  He described the economy as the bus teetering of the edge of the cliff in the film The Italian Job.  The gold bullion is the amassed wealth we have borrowed and the weight of that debt could take us (our economy) over the edge.  I hadn't realised but in 1976 the government of the day had to borrow money from the IMF (International Monetary Fund).  We're not that bad yet but things are close.  James talked about the reduction in volume sales in most categories between 2006-2011, except cereals, chocolates, sweets coffee and wine!  That says a lot as well.  Fruit and veg consumption also fell during that time period, are we building problems and cost for the economy in the future?

One of the key aspects of the day I was interested in was the 20x20 Sustainability Plan.  This will involve all of the suppliers listening in the audience and many of their suppliers as well.  I would count us in that list as well.  Being part of the supply chain we need to listen to what our main customer (for lamb) is telling us and be apart of that supply chain.  It's also good to have someone setting targets and goals to aim for.  For instance part of the plan is get 35 of the most commonly used raw materials sourced sustainably.  Sounds easy?  But here is the list: cotton, strawberries, milk, timber, eggs, salmon, citrus, cork, wheat, cod, chicken, leather, apples, peat, pork, coffee, rapeseed, cocoa, palm oil, blueberries, biofuels, prawns, soya, tomatoes, tuna, grapes, haddock, sunflower oil, potatoes, beef, sugar, tea, carrots, paper and finally lamb!

This is no mean feat but one that should be applauded and will only happen with the help of the suppliers and growers.  It was also great to see a picture of me with Alice Swift up on the big screen with our ewes and lambs (bottom left above).  Other main targets this year include, Live Well For Less, 2020, Fit for the Future, Year of the Product and R&D.  We scored highly on the R&D side having two proposals accepted for research work this year.  I will be blogging about sheep lameness shortly, watch this space, the trial has begun.