Farming Today This Week

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Farming Today: 12/03/22 - Farming Today This Week: Wheat prices and food security, Catch App, NI Protocol

12/03/22 - Farming Today This Week: Wheat prices and food security, Catch App, NI Protocol

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, 12/03/22 - Farming Today This Week: Wheat prices and food security, Catch App, NI Protocol

We follow the impact of increased wheat prices through the food chain.

Between them, Russia and Ukraine produce 30% of global wheat exports. As the war causes a leap in wheat prices, we follow the impact through the food chain.

This time last year a tonne of UK wheat for milling would have been worth around £220 - now farmers tell us they’re getting £300. It’s a knock-on effect of the misery in Ukraine which - along with Russia - produces a third of the world’s wheat exports. In the UK we don't import significant amounts from the region but across the world, prices are rising in response to the war. In this programme we look at the consequences all along the food chain.

A group of small-scale fishermen have applied for permission for a judicial review against the Marine Management Organisation, in a row over a phone app. The Catch App has been designed by the MMO to allow fishermen to record which species and how much they catch, and where they land it. Use of the app became mandatory for all English vessels under 10 metres long at the end of February, and failure to do so accurately could lead to an unlimited fine. But fishermen say this could mean being criminalised by an app that simply doesn't work for them, and they want the enforcement of its use delayed.

Negotiators from the UK and the EU have been meeting this week to discuss the Northern Ireland Protocol. When the UK left the EU it was decided that Northern Ireland would remain inside the single market and still follow EU food standards - so goods crossing the land border between the Northern Ireland and the Republic do not need to be checked. Instead those checks are done as goods cross the Irish Sea. But this arrangement has been causing problems for some food and farming businesses - with the new bureaucracy meaning added costs.

Presented by Charlotte Smith
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons

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