Committee publication · Correspondence · 17 July 2025
Correspondence from the Chair to NFU Cymru dated 9 June 2025 relating to the 4 June evidence session
From: Welsh Affairs Committee
Inquiry: Farming in Wales in 2025: Challenges and Opportunities
Summary
The Chair of the Welsh Affairs Committee writes to NFU Cymru President Aled Jones following his 4 June oral evidence session on farming challenges and opportunities in Wales. The letter requests written responses to questions about export certification barriers pre-UK-EU reset, assessment of the recent SPS agreement, and implications of potential EU food standards alignment for Welsh agri-food exporters.
Key findings
- Committee seeks clarification on whether pre-reset export checks and certificates made Welsh goods less competitive internationally and contributed to export quantity declines since 2019
- Committee requests NFU Cymru assessment of the recent UK-EU SPS (Sanitary and Phytosanitary) agreement and whether it removes all current trade barriers for Welsh exporters
- Committee asks for identification of next negotiation steps with the EU and which EU food standards rules Welsh farmers might find problematic under potential alignment
Tone
ProceduralTopics
agricultureinternational-tradeexport-regulationsuk-eu-relations
Key actors
Ruth Jones MP, Aled Jones, National Farmers Union Cymru, Welsh Affairs Committee
Notable line
“Did the checks and certificates that Welsh exporters needed to obtain, before the UK-EU reset deal, make Welsh goods less attractive to international markets?”
Key Quotes
“I would like to take this opportunity to say how useful the evidence you gave us was for our inquiry, and how interesting the Committee found the session.”
“Due to time constraints during the session, we were not able to cover all the topics that we wanted to.”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗