Four farming union presidents have repeated calls for the UK government to extend the Energy and Trade Intensive Industry (ETII) scheme to include “those sectors of agriculture heavily reliant on energy”.
The presidents of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), NFU Scotland, NFU Cyrmu (Wales) and the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) in Northern Ireland are also calling on the government to recognise food security concerns.
These latest calls follow a meeting on the union presidents in Belfast, and the government’s Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) coming to an end today (Friday, March 31).
The EBRS will be replaced by the Energy Bills Discount Scheme, which will run for 12 months from April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024. However, the ETII is available to provide a higher level of support to businesses and organisations – but many farming businesses are not eligible for this.
In a joint statement, the presidents said: “For the UK government not to extend the highest level of energy relief to sectors highly dependent on energy to rear, grow and store food is a failure of UK government to recognise the deteriorating position on food security.
“We have been crystal clear in pointing out to government and ministers that unless the ETII scheme is amended to provide support for primary agricultural production, there could be a reduction in domestic food production which may prolong the ongoing food price inflation for consumers.
“There is a cast iron case that, from April 2023, the ETII scheme should be providing the highest-level energy relief to a number of sectors within primary agricultural production alongside the relief that is being offered to food processing and manufacturing.
“To offer relief to one without the other is self-defeating if we are to genuinely address consumer concerns over food shortages and empty shelves.”
Some businesses that are eligible for support under the ETII include processing and preserving of meat and poultry meat; operation of dairies and cheese making; manufacture of grain mil products, prepared feeds for farm animals and more.
“Many of our farm businesses are reliant on gas and electricity to produce fresh food and they will struggle to absorb the huge hikes in energy prices that they will face from tomorrow (April 1, 2023),” the presidents continued.
“It is within the gift of UK government to address genuine food security concerns and to review the classification for higher level support.
“Energy prices are already seriously damaging our ability to produce food and from this weekend, many of our members’ businesses will face an energy cost cliff edge.”
