County Derry farming community 'needs urgent action from the Government'

Robert Carmichael, the Chairman of the East Derry Ulster Unionist Party Association, has warned that the constituency’s farming community needs urgent action from the Government if it is not to face the same financial ruin that happened to Northern Ireland’s linen industry.

Mr Carmichael, speaking on behalf of the UUP association, said: “Agriculture is one of the main industries in this predominantly rural constituency and our farming community has already been strained to breaking point because of Bovine TB and bird flu crises, Covid and the farm inheritance tax.

“What we are calling for is a united effort from the entire community to save our much-needed agricultural industry, not just here in East Londonderry, but right across Northern Ireland. 

“East Londonderry’s farming families provide a massive contribution to the social, economic and environmental life of the constituency. In the face of the past various economic millstones being heaped on East Londonderry farmers by the European Union, it is a time for urgent action in terms of cash aid from the British Government, not pathetic words of sympathy or empty promises from Starmer’s Labour. 

“The agricultural community forms not just a major part of the commercial backbone of East Londonderry, but also of this entire Province. We must not allow the fight to save this important industry to become a party political or sectarian football. We in the East Londonderry UUP association appeal to the entire community to unite behind the constituency’s farmers in this their latest time of crisis.

READ NEXT: Calls to SVP for help with heating oil more than double in a single year

“The livelihoods of many thousands of people in the farming industry are at risk right across the Province. However, it is not only those directly involved in farming who stand to lose if the Ulster agricultural industry goes under financially. 

“The vast consumer market in Northern Ireland will also suffer. They represent the hundreds of thousands of people in the Province who buy farm produce, such as lamb, beef, bacon, eggs, poultry products, and vegetables.

“Various sectors of the Province’s farming community have suffered drastically for more than a decade. The beef, poultry, pig and land-based farmers have all faced financial ruin in recent years. The time has come for a community-wide campaign to save our farming industry, whatever the sector. This united campaign must spread across every city, town, village and hamlet in our Province.

“The people of Northern Ireland can help considerably by ensuring when they buy their groceries from the shops and supermarkets, that they only purchase commodities produced by our local farmers. In this fight to save our local farming industry, each of us has a role to play. Let us all move forward together as a community and ensure that the Ulster farming industry survives well into the new millennium,” said Mr Carmichael.