Dairy Industry

Eric Ollerenshaw Excerpts

Thursday 13th September 2012 Westminster Hall

[Eric Ollerenshaw (Lancaster and Fleetwood) (Con)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Dunfermline and West Fife (Thomas Docherty). He made some important points, which I would like to come back to, without repeating what other more experienced hon. Members have said. My hon. Friend the Member for Tiverton and Honiton (Neil Parish) is rapidly becoming my farming guru—alongside the Minister, I hope.

Probably two-thirds of my constituency, Lancaster and Fleetwood, is rural—upland and lowland. I will not repeat the points that my hon. Friend the Member for Thirsk and Malton (Miss McIntosh) made extremely well about the particular issues for upland farmers. The dairy farms in my area are not very big, probably mixed, with about 40 head of cattle maximum—that kind of scale. To be honest, in the middle of all the erudition today, I am extremely new to the topic—a new MP and new to farming, particularly dairying.

I would like to promote Lancashire cheese—my hon. Friend the Member for Congleton (Fiona Bruce) mentioned Cheshire cheese. I thank the individual farmers in Lancashire who educated me. They have small-scale, family-run farms that have gone on for generations. The Hewitts from Poplar Grove farm in Cockerham, the Joneses from Sand Villa farm in Cockerham, and the Whitakers from Park Lane farm in Winmarleigh, all educated me in this process.

My father ran a small business that was so small it was sometimes a one-man business, or a two-man business if my grandfather was working. My father was an asphalter by trade. When the farmers showed me some of the contracts that milk producers sign, I could not believe it. My father would never have been in a position to run a business based on deals with such exclusivity, with the inability to transfer what is produced, and the person being supplied able to vary the price on a whim. On that point, I want to return to what the hon. Member for Dunfermline and West Fife said. He made an important point that others have made before and farmers have made to me: it is about not only the retail end, but the milk buyer in the middle, who is becoming the issue. The farmers are grateful, as others have said, for all that the previous Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for South East Cambridgeshire (Mr Paice) has done—the adjudicator and so on—but they now want that middle bit policed and to see how it is going to be policed. They have raised specific issues.

The previous Minister, in a written statement earlier this month, stated that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs would consult on the arrangements needed to implement dairy producer organisations. Is the Minister able to tell us now when the consultation is likely to be under way? In reference to my hon. Friend the Member for South East Cornwall (Sheryll Murray), whom I call my fishing guru for South East Cornwall, will we learn from the history of the fishing industry and the producers, both the good and the bad?

There was a DEFRA written statement from Lord Taylor in July about marketing, which other hon. Members have mentioned. Lord Taylor said that there would be discussions between the Department and the industry about greater sourcing and promotion of British dairy products, which we have all been on about. Has there been any progress? Has the Minister considered, or is he willing to consider, what others have said about common sense? We all campaign for fair trade, which many others have mentioned, and it is common sense to have fair trade milk, as I think my hon. Friend the Member for Burton (Andrew Griffiths) said.

I am new to the subject, but I recognise that generations are involved. I remember a particular farmer who, when I wandered over and asked how long she had been there, said, thinking me a townie, “Oh, only 300 years.” As other hon. Members have said, some farmers are now considering whether it is worth passing the farm on any more. That tragedy seems to be happening. Next Tuesday, I will speak to the Wyreside young farmers’ dinner, which can apparently be quite an event. I want to be able to say to them—and, as a result of what hon. Friends and hon. Members have said, I hope to say—that there is concern and there is support for getting the industry moving, so that they will have a future, because they are considering whether it is worth while.

My hon. Friend the Member for Stone (Mr Cash) mentioned 1984, and I, too, am a little older than some here. To me, it seems that dairying continually goes through these spasms, to the extent that it is has got to the point where farmers are considering whether dairying is worth while.

As others have mentioned, if we get to such a point, the greenery that is Lancashire will be no more and the nature of this country will be no more. I hope that the Minister will reassure both me and other Members, and particularly my Wyreside young farmers, so that I can tell them next Tuesday that there is a future in dairying that this Government will protect.