An industry-wide commitment to work together matching supply and demand and placing the right crop in the right home has delivered the best possible outcome for the UK crop over the past season, according to David Sheppard, Chairman of AIC’s Arable Marketing Committee.
Speaking at the conclusion to Cereals 2013, Sheppard praised the way farmers, merchants and cooperatives, as well as processors had worked together.
“A very large tonnage of wheat from harvest 2012 came in at quality well below expectations,” said Mr Sheppard. “Export opportunities were extremely limited and it has been testament to the close working relationships and trust between the different parties along the grain chain that we have achieved such a good outcome.
“With farmers cleaning parcels before loading, processors showing great flexibility in taking in an increased quality range and merchants and co-ops spending long hours matching very variable supply with processor requirements, the outcome for the arable sector in general has been markedly better than we feared in September last year.”
Reflecting on the Cereals 2013 debate on ‘value in the grain chain’, in which he participated on behalf of his company, Mr Sheppard highlighted the agreement reached by all panel members on the importance of trust throughout the chain. This had been an important contributor to the success of the 2012/13 marketing season.
“AIC members have consistently seen a high level of satisfaction from farmer customers for the marketing efforts during what all have recognised as the most difficult year in the past 30 to 40 years. This mirrored the results of an NFU survey which reported 95% of respondents had been happy with the performance of their marketing partner.
“While isolated individuals will always feel that more could have been done,” said Sheppard.
“The chain as a whole can take satisfaction that they are just that – the odd individual – and we can justifiably salute the silent majority of growers who continue to keep UK production at the forefront of modern arable production.”
