Love it or loathe it - and there seems to be little ground between the two - Brexit looms large on the horizon of every industry. For agriculture, this is no different. Every Farming Today and farming publication is full of experts, members of interest groups and affected farmers or workers giving their voice on Brexit and how resulting issues and opportunities should be tackled (this, coincidentally, is my sixpence’s worth). Yet Brexit is not the only change that British farming faces; there is in fact a confluence of developments that could see the industry develop and reposition significantly in the coming years.

The current Conservative Government is using Brexit - and the resultant break away from the Common Agricultural Policy - as an opportunity to restructure, retool and reskill the industry. There has been talk of wholesale change in various areas of agriculture, from the idea of ‘public money for public goods’ to a huge investment in the potential benefits of a new wave of agricultural technology. It is rare that such obvious opportunities present themselves, and the ambitious reforming zeal of Michael Gove is very much in evidence in the Government’s hopes to achieve a sea change in British agriculture.

In her first speech as NFU President, Minette Batters spoke of her desire to capitalise on this ‘new dawn for farming’ and for ‘Ministers to recognise the global opportunities there are for British farmed food and drink.’ As Britain seeks a new relationship with Europe, farmers are developing a freshly renewed interest in the export sector and in how they can develop their produce with a point of difference, to give them an advantage when marketing their produce across the world.

The opportunities offered by technological developments and changes in consumer behaviour may yet provide an easy cure to any headaches regarding marketing British produce abroad. DEFRA Secretary Michael Gove has already said that tech will be a huge part of the landscape of post-Brexit British agriculture, with hopes that new technology can help improve  productivity, which has lagged behind competitors. The Government has set aside £90 million to take new technologies, such as those produced by UK disruptors Hummingbird or German-based Evonik Nutrition & Care, and get them ‘into the field’ (pun intended).

The development of this new industrial revolution comes at the same time as consumer behaviour in the developed world begins to tilt away from goods produced by industrial factory farms and towards ethnically sourced, sustainable agriculture with a traceable source. Utilising technology to capitalise on this trend will be key; British livestock farming currently produces high quality food that is sold at a premium abroad, sold on a promise of assured high quality and excellent standards. Increasing the traceability of goods produced in the UK could assure help, in Minette Batter’s words, to ‘put British farming on the global map’ by cresting the wave of consumer interest.

A vast increase in the amount of data available to farmers is just ahead. There will be multiple sources - soil sampling sensors, mobile apps, cameras, drones and AI - which will aide farmers maximise their productivity, as well as reduce costs. But the possibility of marrying the supply chain to blockchain technology may be the secret formula British agriculture needs to explode into the worldwide export market post-Brexit.

Blockchain, most often associated with cryptocurrencies, is in essence a digital ledger. It stores data from every link in a chain in perpetuity, and allows users access to this chain right back to the point of origin. If blockchain technology can be successfully applied on a mass scale to agricultural produce, consumers will be able to tell if their produce is actually sustainable grown - and where - without having to rely on a label, which will vastly increase consumer confidence in an opaque supply chain.

In August of last year, IBM’s blockchain division partnered with huge food suppliers such as Walmart, Unilever and Nestlé in the US to carry out a pilot. This was designed to test blockchain’s ability to provide added consumer confidence by offering them access to and information on the supplier’s global chain - in this case, on mangoes. The challenge was relatively simple; to trace the origin of a mango back through a global supply chain. 

Without blockchain, this took almost a week. But utilising the data collated and held by the technology, the exercise was reduced to two seconds.

Encouraging the development and application of blockchain technology to large scale projects would enable end users to prove the provenance of their items. Given that Britain’s exports maintain a high-end status in world markets - and that the consumer trend away from industrial farming in strongest in wealthy, developed nations - the end result would be far from a simple marketing gimmick. Enabling end users to verify that your free range pork, for instance, was indeed free range, would see consumer trust in British exports soar, building a trusted brand which, when wedded to a strong marketing message and a recognisable brand (a function which the Red Tractor already performs admirably) would position British exporters in an enviable position. The added value of offering end customers traceability would also offer a real point of difference against competitors - particularly those with high but relatively similar standards of welfare, such as other members of the EU.

Blockchain technology is mostly rapidly being applied to agriculture in China, where it is driven by huge concerns about food standards - as the Chinese population has increased, the demand for food has skyrocketed - and the quality of produce has fallen dramatically. Although British agriculture is behind this particular Sino curve, Chinese and British exports are aimed at different ends of the market.

British produce already has a reputation for excellent and reliable quality, built on a foundation of maintaining years of high standards. Adding traceability to this would mean British agriculture could be sold right at the top end of the market, amongst the world’s finest produce. It will require innovation and a willingness to embrace change - but it might be British farming’s next marketing masterstroke.