The Farmers’ Union of Wales’ Presidential Policy team welcomed a real terms increase of around 14% to Wales’ rural affairs budget when they recently met to discuss the most critical farming matters facing the sector.

The Union previously voiced its concern that the Welsh Government draft budget for the 2023-24 financial year suggested that the budget for rural affairs would decrease by £9 million compared with the indicative budget published in March 2022, which in real terms represented a much greater fall.

However, in the final Welsh Government budget for the 2023-24 period published in February this year, the rural affairs budget sits at £482 million.

That’s 23% more than the allocation for rural affairs for 2022-23 (£393 million), £26 million more than the indicative budget from March 2022 and £35 million more than stated in the draft budget.

With UK Consumer Price Inflation sitting at around 9% for the 12 months to January 2023, this represents a real terms increase in the budget for rural affairs in Wales of around 14% and was much welcomed by the Union.

FUW President Glyn Roberts said: “Financial stability and clarity is essential when it comes to running a business, especially for the farming sector that continues to face staggeringly high inflation rates for agricultural inputs. We therefore publicly raised concerns last year regarding potential cuts to the Welsh Government’s Rural Affairs budget and we welcome the fact that these concerns have been addressed.

“However, it is essential that the Welsh Government spends this budget responsibly. Welsh agriculture is facing huge challenges in terms of an acute rise in input costs as well as the costs of new regulations introduced by the Welsh Government.

“We have also lost around £250 million from the CAP replacement due to the UK Government’s decision to cut what we would normally have received from the EU, so it is essential that this extra allocation to the rural affairs budget is used to fund actions and interventions which make up for these significant losses.”