ON Tuesday we celebrate St David’s Day - an opportunity to highlight all that is great and wonderful about Wales, including our unique culture, writes FUW president Glyn Roberts.

In parts of Wales we will even see people return to the streets in traditional costumes, or participating in parades after almost two years of absence because of Covid restrictions.

For those of you who can’t make it to one of the parades, I hope you will have enjoyed some of the finest Welsh food and drink to mark the occasion at home.

A cornerstone of our Welsh culture is agriculture, which directly employs 53,000 people and provides raw ingredients for a £7.5 billion Welsh food and drink supply chain employing 229,000 people - and that doesn’t include the tens of thousands of other businesses and their employees who work to supply farms and food businesses.

While family farms are at the heart of such direct economic benefits and the preservation of a culture intrinsically linked to food production, the wider benefits of Welsh agriculture are vast; as managers of around 80 per cent of Wales’ landmass, farmers play an invaluable part in managing and preserving a landscape which provides clean drinking water for millions; is diverse in habitat and species, including more than 1,000 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs); and brings millions of tourists to our country each year.

What we can take from this is that farming matters.

It provides a solid foundation for our economy - producing food, providing employment, and playing an active role in looking after our environment. And we want to keep our farmers producing glorious food and continue in their role as custodians of the countryside for many years to come.

What threatens that system are trade deals with countries that have very different production standards to ours which, if they are signed, would put our farmers on a back foot when it comes to being competitive.

We raised those points when our union officials met with Welsh MPs and the Australian High Commissioner, the Hon George Brandis QC last week.

In those meetings we were clear that as a union we have severe doubts about this agreement - doubts which are highlighted by the UK Government’s impact assessment that shows UK GDP growth of only 0.08 per cent over 15 years as a result of this agreement.

One thing is clear - if we want to keep enjoying sustainable, nutritious Welsh food, and reap the benefits of a thriving agricultural sector - then we must look after our farmers and our markets.

I can reassure members that we will keep up the good work to ensure that our voices are heard by those who make decisions on trade and our future, to ensure that thriving, sustainable family farms are part of our future for generations to come.