VERY FEW in the world of Scottish agriculture can say that they have not recently had the chance to hear NFUS president Jim McLaren put over his views, writes Ewan Pate, farming editor.

This week alone he has spoken at three major events.

On Tuesday he spoke to an egg producers’ conference, on Thursday he spoke to Scottish Agronomy members during the day in Perth and by the evening he was in St Andrews addressing a seminar run jointly by Cupar law firm Pagan Osborne and land agents CKD Galbraith.

Now just into his second year in office Mr McLaren is clearly and briskly taking the chance to lay out his agenda for 2008.

Rather than become bogged in detail in his talk at St Andrews he took the broad brush and looked at areas of potential conflict, including food security versus food reliance.

“I congratulate Morrisons on undertaking to supply nothing but fresh meat sourced in the UK but wonder if the supplies will be there for them next year, especially for pigmeat,” he said.

“The problem with all the supermarkets is that food security simply hasn’t been on their radar.”

Mr McLaren tackled free trade versus fair trade and pointed out the problems caused by imports not meeting the high standards set in Scotland and the possible effects of trade liberalisation if markets are opened up under a WTO agreement.

“Standards are not a trade issue and we need retailer and consumer recognition of the quality of food we produce here and the cost of producing it,” he said.

“Public procurement of food in the UK is worth £2 billion annually and we should be having a much larger share of that.”

Looking to the future of the Common Agricultural Policy and the “health check” being undertaken by EU agriculture commissioner Marian Fischer Boel, Mr McLaren said, “Compulsory modulation of Single Farm Payment is likely to rise to 13% but it is essential that if it does reach that level that voluntary modulation drops at the same time.

“In 2008 the rate of compulsory modulation will be 8% and voluntary modulation will be 5%.

“Out of the 27 member states in the EU only the UK and Portugal impose voluntary modulation on their farmers.

“The critical thing is that farming payments have to be paid for farming activities.”

John Stewart, Langraw, St Andrews, asked whether it would be wise for farmers to sell their entitlements to SFP or, instead, to buy more.

“I am doing neither,” said Mr McLaren.

“I believe direct payments will continue beyond 2013 and that Lord Sewel and his colleagues in the House of Lords were wrong to suggest this week that they should be phased out.

“However ongoing support payments are structured I would expect that holding entitlements will be important.

“As to buying, I don’t know if I would invest in more SFP.

“Buying shares in Tesco might be a better bet!”

Chris Addison-Scott, partner in CKD Galbraith, said, “I have noted that only about 50% of the entitlements offered for sale publicly have been sold and prices have come back.”

Considering rental values for land in the light of higher commodity prices Mr Addison-Scott said, “There are a lot of rent reviews coming up this year. It is 10 years or more since rents went up to any degree and I would expect market forces to come into play.

“Finding comparable rents will be possible through looking at recent Short Limited Duration Tenancies (SLDTs) or Limited Duration Tenancies (LDTs) and economic circumstances on arable farms have improved.

Rents, however, are less likely to increase on livestock farms at present.”

Mike Reid, also a partner in CKD Galbraith, noted, “Rents should be able to go down as well as up to reflect market forces.

“We could do with a more flexible approach in many aspects.

“The five-year maximum term for an SLDT and the 15 years minimum for an LDT are too inflexible and discriminate against new entrants. That gap should be closed.”