Basingstoke farmers livelihoods at risk from cheap imports

In Switzerland, which operates a highly protectionist, flexible import system which prioritises domestic produce, import duties are only lowered when local supplies are insufficient - typically during off-season periods.

Farmers in Basingstoke are urging the government to enforce a similar system.

"All we want to do is to speak to somebody," said farmer and ward councillor for Evingar, Jo Perry.

"We just want dialogue, no malice.

Cllr Jo Perry among the frustrated farmers protesting (Image: Sean Dillow)

"Farmers need food security. At the moment, they go to somewhere like Tesco and are told, 'This is how much we are going to pay for your food', when with every other industry, it is the other way around.

"In Switzerland, if food is in season, like apples, for example, businesses are not allowed to import it from abroad. It's only when apples are not in season that they would be allowed to import them. I think that's what we should have here."

Cllr Perry, who has lived on a farm for most of her adult life, said that she, and many other farmers in the borough and beyond, are feeling frustrated by recent changes to inheritance tax laws, which have affected their livelihoods.

She explained that there is a common misconception that although the land they farm is worth a lot of money when sold, when used for agricultural purposes, such as growing food, ordinary farmers are barely breaking even year-on-year.

She said: "People don't understand that although the land may be worth millions, as a farm, you are lucky to break even. I live on a working farm and grow crops, but we always have to spend extra money on the fertiliser, fuel, machinery like tractors and combines, which cost thousands, and you have to pay to maintain them.

"Most farmers, and these are the real farmers who wake up early to go to work and finish late, don't make profits; they live on what they can get. They don't have holidays.

"I have watched so many friends struggle. We're at the stage now where we just feel so demoralised.

"We want a dialogue to discuss issues of farming today."

Cllr Perry explained that British farmers can't compete with the food imported cheaply from abroad, and the inheritance tax changes were just another nail in the coffin.

She believes that nobody should have to pay inheritance tax: "No one should have to pay it, not just farmers, it is wrong, it's a tax on death."

She believes that the efforts to make life difficult financially for farmers are deliberate: "The government want to get rid of farmers so the land can all be bought up for housing.

"Starmer does as much as he can to avoid personal dialogue. He doesn't care about the fact we will end up with very little British-grown produce."