Closure of 'Food from Britain' will hit British farm exports says Farron

3.00.00pm GMT Wed 26th Mar 2008

Liberal Democrat MP and Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Hill Farming Tim Farron today registered his outrage at the closure of 'Food from Britain.' Food from Britain is the government body responsible for promoting British food abroad. The decision to 'wind up' the body came after DEFRA announced that the public funding for the body of around £4.7m each year was to be phased out by 2010/11. DEFRA is currently in the midst of a funding crisis, with one of the Government ministers responsible for DEFRA recently admitting to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee that the animal welfare arm of DEFRA was to lose a third of its resources. Mr Farron has now launched an Early Day Motion in Parliament praising the work of Food from Britain and calling on the Government to act to safeguard the body in order to enhance British farm exports.

Tim Farron MP said:

"It is very worrying that a service such as this, which helps all kinds of British food and drink companies to export their goods and better their business, should be wound up due to bad financial management at DEFRA.

"At the NFU conference, Gordon Brown talked of the importance of farmers to the British economy, but this cut means that he will be reducing a key service which helps farmers to export their produce. The Government must act now to put an end to the financial difficulties facing DEFRA, and answer the difficult questions facing it - why is DEFRA having economic problems, who is to blame and why won't they act now before the countryside loses more valuable schemes