Future farmers meeting in Yorkshire will debate how to farm through inflation

Attendees will hear from a knowledgeable and high-profile panel of speakers as they pick through the topic of ‘Ploughing on Through High Inflation’ at Pavilions of Harrogate, the Great Yorkshire Showground, Harrogate on Thursday December 1.

Among the speakers will be Mark Berrisford-Smith, Head of Economics at HSBC UK’s Commercial Banking business.

He will explain how inflation took hold so quickly over the past 18 months, and what needs to happen for this to ease,

Mark said: “The war in Ukraine has unleashed twin inflationary shocks in the form of higher food and energy prices. For farmers in the UK, annual input price inflation is now running at 30 per cent, while output price inflation stands at 21 per cent.

“Although many businesses have been able to absorb higher costs thanks to better prices, this is not universally the case. Prices for some cereal products are up by more than 50 per cent compared with a year earlier, while poultry and lamb prices have hardly increased at all.”

Great Yorkshire Show Director Charles Mills, Farmers Weekly Young Farmer of the Year Matthew Nichols and Andrew Hardcastle, Director of Hardcastle Rural Surveyors will also attend.

Between them, Charles and Matthew will offer a view on living and farming though inflation in the past and what it is like to be experiencing this for the first time. They will also explain how they are tackling the challenge in their own businesses.

Future Farmers of Yorkshire Management Board member Isobel Eames, who will Chair the panel, hopes that a close look at the causes and impacts of inflation will prove useful for those looking to plot a course through this testing period.

Ms Eames, who is AHDB’s Knowledge Exchange Manager for Cereals and Oilseeds added: “At our Future Farmers Autumn Debate, we will discuss how agricultural businesses can ‘plough on’ through this challenging period, learning what is currently

influencing the market dynamics, if business leaders have any tactics and understanding whether there are any lessons to be learnt from previous periods of high inflation.”

To register for a free place at the Future Farmers of Yorkshire’s Autumn Debate 2022, visit yas.co.uk/ffy-inflation-autumn-debate.

Future Farmers of Yorkshire is an enterprising network of more than 1,000 younger farmers, vets and industry professionals, and is free to join.