The entire farming sector needs to make sure it works together as an industry as it enters its “biggest poker game ever” when it seeks to capture the true value of its environmental, climate mitigation and production credentials from the supply chain.

Encouraging the industry to make the most of the aces which it held in its hand now that retailers are being asked to account for the up and down stream indirect GHG emissions of their suppliers, leading agri-economist Steven Thomson said this provided a chance for producers to make sure they got their fair share from the marketplace:

Speaking during a panel session at this week’s Arable Scotland event, the SRUC policy specialist said that harnessing this opportunity was crucial:

“The Government can worry about the sustainability of rural communities – but the crux of the issue for the industry going forward will be to capture more out of the supply chain.”

And he said that in this respect it was absolutely vital that Scotland and the rest of the UK could show that they compared favourably with the practices adopted in other countries.

Laurencekirk farmer and chair of Scottish Quality Crops, Andrew Moir, made it clear that as other sectors of the supply chain were desperate to get their hands on the huge quantity of data which farmers could supply on key areas such their carbon audits, producers should make sure they didn’t sell this too cheaply;

“We shouldn’t be willing to give anything away to anyone unless they are willing to pay for it and pay for it very well,” he told growers.

“The £5 a tonne which I’m hearing has been offered to hand over farmers' carbon audit information for the benefit of the whisky trade is absolute sweeties - and don’t forget once this information is gone, it’s gone,” he told the 250 cereal growers who attended the event at the James Hutton’s Balruddery Farm outside Dundee.