The Scottish agricultural sector was thrown into a state of uncertainty yesterday after the UK voted to leave the EU.
Reaction among farmers attending the Royal Highland Show in Edinburgh was mixed, but a key question on everyone’s minds was: ‘what will happen to vital farm subsidy support?’
Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy, Fergus Ewing, said the farming community would be more affected by a Brexit than most due to its reliance on subsidy support from Europe.
He pledged to do all he could to ensure farmers and crofters would continue to receive subsidy support in future.
Mr Ewing said: “I want to assure them [farmers] that, as their farming minister, I will be leaving no stone unturned to argue the case for Scottish farmers and crofters to continue to receive the financial support that enables them to stay on the land.”
The UK Government’s farming department, Defra, confirmed that the details of a future agricultural policy for the UK were yet to be agreed.
A spokeswoman said the Prime Minister had been clear that an agricultural support system was needed in the event of the country leaving Europe, and it was vital to the economy that British farming remained profitable.
Farming union NFU Scotland warned that the next few years would be filled with uncertainty for the sector.
The union’s president, Allan Bowie, added that farming needed to be at the top of the political agenda going forward and the union would be lobbying to ensure future policy was shaped to the needs of Scots farmers and crofters.
*See more Brexit reaction from the Royal Highland Show in today’s free Farming supplement.
