Red meat and dairy exports - how is the Iran war impacting trade? Plus, what farmers are planting

Hannah: 00:00:00

Well, I don't know about you, Phil, but I spent my weekend labouring.

I was swinging a sledgehammer around because we're having an extension built at some point soon, hopefully on the house, but we've got to do a bit of demo first, so I was getting a bit of anger management out.

Phil: 00:00:16

You've basically been taking your frustrations out on some concrete, is it?

Hannah: 00:00:21

Yeah, I'd recommend it. You know, if you've got any work going on, just get stuck in.

Phil: 00:00:25

Well, yeah, we have had a bit of work going on actually. We've had a drain being dug up at the front of the house.

Luckily no skeletons down there, but while they were actually looking at the drain, we've had a problem with the toilet downstairs.

So there's a ban on using it for number twos, but I think one of the kids had used it because they flushed the toilet to test it was working and where the water was going. And lo and behold, a little brown deposit went floating past.

Hannah: 00:00:56

I don't know where to go from there. Hello, dear listener, I'm Hannah Clarke.

Phil: 00:01:15

And I'm Phil Maiden and welcome to The AG Show.

Hannah: 00:01:18

Good to have you on this podcast with Charlotte taking a well earned break.

Phil: 00:01:22

Yeah, yeah. Well, hopefully Hannah, I can do her justice.

Hannah: 00:01:25

Coming up on this episode, we'll hear about the work of our exports team and how they continue to champion our produce around the world.

Jono: 00:01:33

Looking at dynamics around the world, whether that's population numbers, projected GDP growth, what consumption is going to do in individual markets, and again, how the regulatory landscape lands in terms of gaining access.

Phil: 00:01:49

We'll also be finding out about the planting and variety survey and how you can help shape the early estimates of this year's harvest.

Helen: 00:01:56

The idea here is to give people a little bit of an earlier look at what could be coming and then you're thinking about with some of our other information that AHDB produces, what stocks are likely to be held at the end of June.

Hannah: 00:02:11

A reminder, new episodes of the Ag show drop every Wednesday at midday and they are available wherever you get your.

Phil: 00:02:17

Podcasts with audio and video versions for every show. Just subscribe to to make sure you don't miss an episode.

Hannah: 00:02:25

And please do get in touch with us. As always, we really want to hear your stories, what you're getting up to on farm in the supply chain, wherever.

Comment on any of our social posts or email agshowdb.org UK.

Phil: 00:02:40

Let's start this week with a look at the work of our exports team.

Earlier this year we highlighted the news that the Global appetite for UK dairy and red meat had seen exports hitting a record high and of £4 billion last year.

Hannah: 00:02:54

And it got us thinking about what work goes behind the scenes from an HDB point of view to help reach these record highs.

t was a big year for trade in: 2025

Jono: 00:03:17

Yeah, thanks, Hannah. Great to be back. Yeah, look, it was a strong year.

That record value first time that both the meat through 2 billion just and dairy exports in value increased by 17% to 2.2 billion. So that's a great place to be driven by demand in a number of markets.

Not forgetting there are a few challenges around the world right now, but across the sectors there's a mix in the meat sectors of higher volumes, particularly of sheep meat and pork. Now, some of the values in the pork market are challenging in Asia and we're probably all quite familiar with type cattle supplies.

So while cattle was down, the value was actually up. So ro demand driven there by a number of markets on those sectors. And I'll let Lucy come to dairy just in a second.

But just a market that remains critically important to us is obviously across the channel in Europe. So in the meat sectors, 81% of our exports were destined for the EU and I think it was about 74% for dairy.

So those markets remained critically important. But obviously spreading the risk, looking further afield is also part of the work the team do.

But Lucy, I don't know if you want to add a bit on the dairy success last year.

Lucy: 00:04:28

Yeah, I think that, yeah, we had a really, really big year. A huge jump for us. On the dairy side of it, cheese was up 9.4%. Interestingly, so was milk powders.

So skim milk powders were up sort of over 50%, obviously from a slightly lower base than cheese. But it's really interesting to see what's going on around the world.

And I think that in terms of the markets, you know, up until recently, you know, we found that cheese has been the big one and it will continue to be. And that I think that is why the Europe is such a big one for and will always be a big one.

But I think in terms of potential, and we'll probably talk about this a bit more, but you know about demographics and potential for increase in spending and all that kind of thing. Well, actually, the markets outside of that are the ones for growth. So I think that's key.

And whilst, you know, we are looking to changing that with the whole potential SBS agreement and things that are coming along and it will help us in Europe, we're still very, very keen on expanding outside of that.

Hannah: 00:05:30

So there's been quite a lot of success there. And we've mentioned a few kind of priority markets and areas where we're focusing as a team, as hdb.

at was published recently for: 2025

Jono: 00:05:54

Yeah. So that report was released last month and it's the second edition of this report, following on from the first one in 20.

The first thing we have to have to be able to export is we have to have an export health certificate in place.

And the market access work, which we are involved with very much in supporting government as the competent authority who are responsible for opening and maintaining access.

So, firstly, the role ASDB plays is providing evidence into that, but it's really important and it's a great example of some collaborative work with industry and government that we know which markets we're targeting.

So the basis of that report is looking at dynamics around the world, whether that's population numbers, projected GDP growth, what consumption is going to do in individual markets, and again, how the regulatory landscape lands in terms of gaining access. And that all comes together to enable us to work with government and industry to align the priorities for that market access work.

And that sits in front of the development work that Lucy's team and my team are involved with gaining that access in the first place. And we have some mature markets and we have some newer markets, but that access work and that report really underpins being able to export.

ally since probably the early: 2000

So that's part and parcel of that work as well.

Phil: 00:07:31

So you mentioned earlier, Jono, that the EU's still a big market, but the US is one of those that you've started to open up more access to.

Jono: 00:07:40

Yep. So access to the US has come on stream in recent years, particularly for beef and lamb. You will probably have heard about.

There was not a full trade deal but the UK US agreed a prosperity deal last year.

And from our sector's point of view in the meat sectors, on 1 January this year, a dedicated quota for UK beef access opened up, which is a great opportunity looking at these really complicated landscapes, some of these trade deals, and this is not market access, this is how we actually trade. And that is a complex landscape.

And you'll be familiar with that because we will have heard the word tariff bounded about an awful lot over the last 12 months.

But that 13,000 tonnes, which is a two way reciprocal quota, does give an opportunity for UK beef exporters to maximize what that market potential is now.

Right now we've got tight cattle supplies, as the US have, so still a challenging landscape, but without that dedicated quota, it's been very, very challenging to actually do business over the last couple of years. So it's a great opportunity and some exporters are already availing themselves of that.

Phil: 00:08:49

And you talk about it being reciprocal. So how do we in the US differentiate ourselves when we're selling to each of those markets?

Jono: 00:08:58

That quota will lend itself to high quality, high value beef. And obviously the UK climate, for example, is the perfect climate.

As we tell a lot of our people, it quite often rains here, such a great place to be growing sustainable, high quality beef.

And that's that sort of market that we will be targeting over there with the story and the heritage behind it, as well as our world leading standards of animal welfare and production, which are some of the best in the world, which really help us underpin that story in that high value market. But we should also just probably mention, because everybody knows I'm passionate about it in the meat sectors, the carcass balance as well.

So particularly while we've got these high cattle prices, it's really important as I sector, we can maximize every part of the carcass.

So of course that US quota gives us an opportunity for some high value cuts into food service, for example, but we also want to sell some cuts that have a lower demand here in the UK to markets that value them in the pork sector. Asia's a really good example of that.

Or last year we took a number of exporters out to Senegal and Ghana and those markets are looking much more for fifth quarter products that are much more affordable. And if we don't have big demand from there, it's really useful to try and develop those markets. We can actually sell 100% of what we have.

Phil: 00:10:14

And Lucy, what about dairy in the us?

Lucy: 00:10:17

Interestingly, we don't have the same issues on the Red meat side for market access, as Donna has said. I think it's more sort of trade access sides of it.

But we do have other frustrations, so things like the TRQs into Canada, which is the amount that we are able, under the system that we are able to actually export over there, and who has that quoting, who holds it and who can bring it into the country. So that's a constant one for us. Actually, as an example at the moment, we're looking at Indonesia at the moment.

So we're moving forward a country audit for applications for the handful of exporters that we've got that want to export to the market. So we need to actually bring them over. But once we've done that first sort of country audit for it, we'll be down to desk audit.

So any future applications will mean that they'll just go through a desk audit and they'll be able to export to a country like Indonesia. We have that in sort of lots of other different markets as well. Jonathan has spoken about the us.

So you, you know, the us, for us, we have challenges with the tariff system because obviously, you know, we've got exporters and buyers and retailers over there who are unsure as to what the pricing is going to be at any one time. So that's an interesting one for us to navigate.

And the US is a really, really key market and we're still seeing that British products are really important for US retailers as well, and they're really keen to work with us to try and overcome some of those issues. So I think that we're in a good place in order to be able to do that.

Hannah: 00:11:44

Lucy, it's really interesting to hear, I guess, some of the challenges and differences that market access and trade development in dairy and how that differs to red meat. But I guess one thing that's affecting all markets at the moment to some degree is the conflict in the Middle East.

Lucy: 00:11:59

It is a real issue at the moment and I think that for us it's been incredibly important having our overseas network involved in this. So we've actually got a representative in the Middle East. He's been with us sort of 18 months now.

He's been going great guns to sort of increase what we're doing in the Middle east. And you can see that by the figures. I mean, we're up hugely. It's our biggest. It's our second biggest export market now since this has started.

He's been able to keep his ear on the ground as to what is going on over there, what ports are open where things are being tracked from. And he's actually been effectively blogging out to the exporters. He sent out two or three updates to them as to what he's hearing.

Where they're being able to source products from some of the main markets into the main ports in the UAE aren't working, but they're able to to get it in elsewhere and it's being tracked across land. I think the last one that he said is actually Kuwait is really struggling at the moment.

That seems to be the most hit of all three of them in terms of being able to bring products in. What we're finding is those who've got a volume going out into the market seem to be finding different ways to be able to get the product in.

It's more the sort of small one pallet here, one pallet there going in through air freight that's had the most disruption going into the market.

And of course you've got price increases, huge price increases because of different modes of transport and different ways of being able to get product into the market.

However, they do have the ability over there in the Middle east to just get on with things and things are very much, from what I understand, happening as normal.

You know, they're still going out, they're still shopping, they're still willing to pay and they still want the products that they want to have for those that are actually living over there. So I think they are fairly well placed.

Hopefully, should things ease to come out of this, it'll take a couple of months probably to get things, start getting things back to normal if the ceasefire holds. But I think that, you know, they're very well placed to hit the ground running once things hopefully ease up.

Hannah: 00:13:58

Yeah, it's incredibly volatile, isn't it? And things are changing by the hour.

Phil: 00:14:01

Right, that feels like a good place to pause. Thanks, Jono and Lucy.

We're going to come back to you later in the show, but when we come back, we're going to be talking about the planting and variety survey.

Hannah: 00:16:18

You're listening to the Ag show with me, Hannah and stand in host, Phil. Yes, that's right. Charlotte is taking some well earned rest. So I'm joined by Phil.

And there's only one thing really we're talking about in the news this week, cereal and oil seed rape growers. Please take note because we are, after your information to build an early picture of this year's harvest in the uk.

Phil: 00:16:40

That's right. Our annual planting and variety survey is open and to tell us more, it's the aptly named Helen Plant, AHDB's lead analyst for cereals and oil seeds.

Sorry, Helen, but that was actually. I. I read what's put in front of me. Yeah. So what is the planting and variety survey in a nutshell?

Helen: 00:17:02

I feel the survey is there. It's an early look at what crops have actually made it into the ground.

And so taking that forward a step, what could be produced at the coming harvest? We do an early survey of planting intentions back in the autumn.

But we know things have potentially changed because the economics have been challenging and people are considering their options to some extent and that can vary across the country.

So we're aiming to pull that together and go, okay, how has that changed for you in regions of England and within Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland? And then what does that mean for the national picture?

Could we have more or less available from the coming harvest than people might be expecting from that, then taking that stage further, Is there an impact?

Do you need to rethink or be in closer contact with your preferred merchants or grain traders about how you might be thinking about selling your crops this year?

I suppose the bit that comes to mind for me is if there is a bigger area than planted in your part of the world, does that mean potential for greater supplies?

And so do you need to be sort of on the phone earlier with your contacts to be thinking about what could be coming and how you might want to position it and what homes might you want to be looking to send that to, and those sorts of things?

Phil: 00:18:25

We recently released the first arable crop report. So how does this differ to that?

Helen: 00:18:30

The crop report that we've mentioned was data collected for us by contractors, agronomists and other researchers across the country to give us a snapshot of how crops are looking at the moment, how they've come through the winter. Yeah.

With it being such a wet winter, we really wanted to understand, was there a detrimental impact or were things generally holding up pretty well after the winter? So that's sort of looking at how crops are looking, what their potential is and what sort of areas are we watching.

The disease pressure being the main thing that's sort of been creeping up and is in focus at the moment, whereas the area looks then at how much is in the ground and together using that to then think about what the sort of total crop size might be as we go forward.

So, yeah, we're asking people to submit to us what they grew in the ground last year, the areas they harvested and what they are intending to harvest this year. So what I mean by that is, it's not so much an issue this year, but in some years you get where crops haven't made it.

They were planted and didn't make it through the winter, say and needed to be re sown. We're looking at what's been re sown then rather than what was originally planted.

It's sort of what's in the ground as of now and is likely to make through to be harvested. So we can get that feeling of what sort of availability could there be come harvest.

Hannah: 00:19:55

And I think given everything that's going on in the market anyway, but specifically at the moment there's a lot of volatility and uncertainty is our favorite word. I guess gathering this data, data and trying to get this forward look is really, really, you know, important for the, for the sector.

But there's a lot of draws on, you know, farmers data and people want a lot of information from farmers. Why should farmers take part in this survey specifically?

Helen: 00:20:21

You're right, there is a lot going on and a lot of demands on people's time. In terms of this one, this is sort of the first pre harvest estimate and the government will be putting out their estimates later on.

We'll get sort of the first area information on England in usually mid to late August, but we won't get a full estimate of UK areas and productions until December.

So the idea here is to give people a little bit of an earlier look at what could be coming and then you're thinking about with some of our other information that AHDB produces. So what stocks are likely to be held at the end of June then what could be coming from this harvest?

Okay, is this going to be a heavily supplied year or less so.

And then thinking about those timings for marketing and particularly when you look forward to next year as well, we know some of the challenges that are going on around domestic demand, particularly sort of the brewing, malting, distilling sector, what availability could there be?

And then thinking about cropping intentions for harvest27 we want this information out for you guys to use before harvest so you have time to consider that in case there is anything you may want to adjust. With insights from your sort of local contacts about what's being grown and required locally to you for thinking ahead to next year.

Hannah: 00:21:47

How is the data kind of used once it's collected for the survey, the.

Helen: 00:21:50

Data is firstly anonymised and summed up into regions.

So we can use those comparisons between this year and last year to estimate what the area could be in each region and then Those regional and country data are added together to produce a UK total. So that's sort of like the background bit. It's only held. I'll go. Because this is classic being in the office.

Hannah: 00:22:17

That was the lights going off on. Helen, for anyone listening,.

Helen: 00:22:21

Sorry. We do our best to save energy. The lights turn off at periodic intervals. So here we go again.

But then after that, in terms of how it's used, I know some of the farming unions use the data to look at where they may need to support their members.

It's used by the wider trade and government then for planning purposes as well, thinking about what's needed and for us as well, thinking about where we may need to help and support more in the year ahead. If we know what the sort of crop size is, or maybe you can never rule out surprises at harvest, then how we take things forward within that as well.

Phil: 00:23:02

So, Helen, when will farmers be able to see the results from this survey and what's the deadline for them submitting as well?

Helen: 00:23:10

So in terms of getting the forms to us, if people could have sent their postal forms back by the 11th of May, but you do get a few extra days if you want to do it online. That's the 15th of May, the survey will close there and then we'll turn it around.

We're going to have the results out mid June, so exact date to follow, just depending on how long it takes us to crunch the numbers. But coming soon, mid June.

Hannah: 00:23:37

Helen, thank you so much for joining us. And we'll include all the links to the, to the survey form for people to fill out in the, in the show notes.

But I think we're going to take a short break and we will soon hear from our exports team. You're listening to the Ag show with me, Hannah and Phil. Please get in touch with us. We'd love to hear from you as always.

Email address is agshowdb.orguk and we're joined by Jonathan Eckley and Lucy Randolph from our exports and trade development team.

We're talking about what these guys get up to day to day and we've already alluded to some of the depth and the different work that goes on in these teams.

I wanted to talk a little bit more about you guys and all the people involved on the ground in making trade happen and how we support our levy payers that are involved in exports and trade access. How many people are in the team?

Jono: 00:25:58

Okay, so yeah, export is a key area of work across ahdb. So the total number of people working on international trade is actually 15 people. So within the remit under my team.

Obviously market access is an important part of that. So very, very technical. So meet scientists working there. Obviously Lucy leads on our dairy work so that's in the development arena.

And then in the red meat side which is really established in ahdb I've actually got five people working on that international trade development. Now all those roles are UK based and that red meat sector we're looking at sort of a regional structure there.

So I have somebody looking after the Americas which is mainly the usa, Canada and Mexico. And then obviously the Middle east has been an important market in West Africa for carcass balance.

So somebody looking after that region and then further afield is Asia particularly important with you know, asia taken nearly 50% of our pork exports. The only people AHDB has based overseas on the AHDB team is France is obviously a really, really important market for us on beef and lamb.

So I have a wonderful team of three people based in Paris who are working with the trade over there business to business marketing and then in addition to that obviously the international marketing piece is quite important.

So there's two people based in HQ up at Coventry leading on the international marketing to support the trade development work that Lucy and my team are involved with and just to extend that reach and I lay Lucy may cover this in more detail some really good examples of people on the ground like we talked about in the Middle east. So we do stretch that reach. We haven't got a resource to have people in all the important markets to us.

So we work through a network of agencies that we procure, whether that's in Northern Europe or the amazing Holly Chen who doesn't actually work for HDB but works 100% on AHDB work in that all important market of China.

Lucy: 00:27:48

On our side of it there's sort of two of us who work in the UK team and then very importantly we've got our overseas representatives who are effectively a bit like the agency network that Jonathan has on the European side of it for red meat. They have actually been with us sort of 18 months or so.

They're as a result of sort of a collaboration that we had with the Department for Business and Trade on the Dairy Export Fund and it's actually something that we agreed and co funded between us but which is now 100% on AHDB. So we went from. We actually had three, one in the US, one in the Middle east and one in Asia.

We're now down to the Middle east and Asia as HDB is now 100% paying for these guys. So it's really key for us to make sure that we're maximizing what we're doing in these markets. And I think they have been really key for us.

They've been a bit of a game changer.

I would even extend to say on the export side of it, just that sort of one to one knowledge, that one to one relationships, understanding the culture in those markets, being able to coordinate. I mean I just counted up, We've done over 20 pieces over the last 18 months.

We've done over 20 pieces of activity that wouldn't have been done without those guys.

I think we worked out is we've introduced 20 to 25 new products into retailers over the last 18 months through retail promotions and things like that. So these guys are really, you know, really on board working 100% full time for us.

And I think, you know, they've been key for us and I think Jono, you guys, during COVID having your European agents was really key for you having that, you know, having those people in market when we couldn't get anywhere as well.

Jono: 00:29:32

Yeah, I mean the international me business is all about relationships and whether that's between businesses to business or from an ASDB point of view, relationships with importers and distributors in market. So those local connections are really, really important to the work we do.

Having a really good understanding of the markets they're operating in and you know who's in that market to help connect people. And obviously, you know, we talked about a dynamic world.

If there are shocks in the world like we've got right now or there was with COVID having people in place in those strateg markets to maintain that relationship and that doing the business is really important to us.

Phil: 00:30:08

You talk about COVID and obviously that has changed the world because we're now talking on the podcast, which has been a booming podcast since COVID because people can talk remotely and record wherever they are. But the exports team still does a lot of face to face work and I understand that's really important. Is that right?

Jono: 00:30:27

Yeah, it is, it is.

I mean, if you go back to Covid and you know, we got into that digital space pretty quickly and people were really excited about that and it worked really well for a period of time. And then we found the best events we could do.

We had an event in Japan, for example, where we got 70 buyers in a room in Japan and we were able to dial in and talk to them, which obviously delighted to get up at 4 o' clock in the morning to do that. But that space soon got quite fatigued.

ers, was really apparent from: 2023

And you know, Lucy would be a great example of that, of the hours she spent traveling the world back then, as I did, to re establish those connections.

Because being able to sit down with people, whether it's on a stand at a trade show that are strategically important to us, or an event showcasing the product, doing that face to face stuff is really important. And we all know the digital stuff is great. And it's much easier to do the digital stuff when you've actually met people face to face.

So While maybe the 20, 23 years where it was crazy reconnecting are not with us right now, that being able to talk to people face to face. And of course both with meat and dairy products, we have a tactile product, we need people to touch and taste it.

So that all comes together as those events we run.

Whether it's a trade show that's strategically important in China or a cheese tasting event in in America, it's really important that those things still happen to get those people together, to establish and build on those relationships.

Lucy: 00:32:11

I think that was really interesting actually because I think before COVID there were questions about could we move this online. It seemed that's the way everywhere was going. And oh yes, this could be quite a good thing to do. It saves us money, et cetera.

And I think Covid was a really good example of actually demonstrating how you can, you can do a bit of it online, but in fact it is the face to face and relationships.

And we found that during that time existing business sort of ticked along but no new business really was done because they couldn't do that face to face, touch, feel, see the product and also see you and create those connections.

And in many, many cultures around the world, it is about relationships, it's about getting to know them, getting to know their family, getting to know their team. And then we talk business. And that is key to doing international business.

So I found that it was a bit of a great reset for us in a way because it kind of solidified what we'd already always thought, but thought we'd have to explore that digital is not totally the way forward.

Phil: 00:33:12

And what about the travel element? Because on the surface people might think it's quite nice flying off on Planes and traveling around the world.

But I'm guessing the reality's quite different to that.

Lucy: 00:33:23

It's always a fun one for us. I mean, it's hard. It's a lot of time away. It's a lot of time to get to a lot of these places you're talking.

And especially with them going longer around Iran or fuel, conserving fuel. You know, flight times have got longer as well. So an eight hour is now a 10 hour, 11 hour trip.

And it's a lot, you know, you're away a lot, you're away weekends, you have killer jet lag, you land, you work and it's generally all day with clients and then client in the evening as well. It's not as glamorous as everybody thinks it is. It's kind of doing your day job on steroids effectively. And you do run on adrenaline.

I mean, I often find that I come back and you crash a little bit because you run on adrenaline for a week, just keep going, keep going. And then you find you come home and you're talking too much to everybody and you can hear yourself going, just calm down, calm down.

Phil: 00:34:19

I'm guessing as well, sometimes you're in the air longer than you are on the ground on these trips.

Lucy: 00:34:25

I mean, if we're doing trade shows, generally not. But yes, sometimes that can happen.

Jono: 00:34:28

Happen, yeah. Look, we travel, that's what we do, right? And we're incredibly lucky to do that.

But once you've done it, as much as the team have, particularly myself and Lisa, it's not quite as glamorous as it sounds. So I'll give you an example. I was in Tokyo where we did an event just a month ago, probably three nights in Tokyo.

It was about 19 hours to get there because I had to fly some via somewhere else because direct flights are so expensive. And of course that window of getting across to Asia is pretty narrow right now because you can't go over Russia or the Middle East.

And then I had 24 hours in Hong Kong and home. So probably in door to door from Asia. It's probably, it's 24 hours coming door to door.

It's not glamorous, but it's, you know, look, it's what we do and it's what we enjoy doing. Not necessarily the travel, you know, sitting on an aircraft, you never get that time back.

But it's about that face to face contact and it's about the people. It's about talking to those importers in Japan when you're there for that time.

And Also it's a great time to continue building relationships with the UK exporters that are also there, getting themselves there to meet these people for us to host an event to get them in front to do those discussions. And that's what drives certainly me to do that. Cause it's about the people and you can only do that face to face.

Hannah: 00:35:41

It says here Johnny won't ever let us forget his suitcase that was last seen in South Africa 14 years ago. Lucy, have you got any other similar tales of woe from your travels?

Lucy: 00:35:53

Oh, yeah, quite a recent one actually. And to be honest, it involved Jono, so I think there's a pattern there without his animals.

So we had a bit of a nightmare trip to go out to Dubai for the golf food show and I was actually traveling with Donna and our flight from the uk, which was direct, was cancelled. So they rebooked us to go via Paris. So we landed in Paris and got there waiting to board, crew were on board everything.

And then last minute they said, oh, political situation, we can't fly now. So we had to quickly get in touch with our travel agent and resort flights got the last two seats out.

I think it was on another flight to get out there. And of course our luggage never caught up with us. So we. Well, I was without it for four days. Jono was out without it for three days.

You know, you're getting in later, you're having to rearrange things. And I blame Jono for that because clearly it's a pattern with him.

Jono: 00:36:44

t that suitcase I last saw in: 2012

So the moral of the story really is getting earned luggage and don't travel with Jono.

Phil: 00:36:54

On a more positive note though, Jono, opposite to losing things, you've also gained something recently, I understand, which is the freedom of the City of London. Is that right?

Jono: 00:37:03

Yeah, that is right, yeah. I'm honoured.

A month ago I was clothed as a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Butchers down in London, which is one of the City of London's livery companies and there's a hundred of those with the butcher's company being number 24 on the list. So I was clothed in butcher's hall and as part of that I've been granted the freedom of the City of London, a wonderful accolade.

It's a great community within butcher's hall of like minded souls related to the meat industry, which is what I've been done for probably too many years to remember. But look, it's an honor to be said and be proposed to become part of that. And it's a great opportunity for.

There's got a great venue in London and, you know, occasionally having some networking opportunities with people of a similar mindset.

And it's a great way of gaining insight on what's happening both in the UK market, but also wider afield on those international markets that are so important to my work and Lisa's work on the dairy side side as well.

Phil: 00:38:01

Well thoroughly deserved and congratulations. I've got to ask you, though, do you get any perks from the freedom of the city? Do you get to run a few sheep across a bridge or anything the like?

Jono: 00:38:12

Yeah, yeah. It's mainly ceremonial, but that is one of the privileges. I can do that. I can now drive sheep across Blackfriars Bridge.

And that does happen once a year. So we'll see if I can get myself aligned for that and go along to support.

Lucy: 00:38:29

I think we need to do that.

Phil: 00:38:30

Yeah, I want to see that happen next year, Jono.

Hannah: 00:38:34

Well, Phil, I think that's probably all we've got time for this week. We've been all over the world.

We've spoken to the exports team, we've learned about market development and even on our own backyard, we've spoken to Helen about planting and variety survey.

Martin: 00:38:47

So, Hannah, did Phil pass the test? Is he going to be welcomed back for the next show or up? You going to pick up the sledgehammer and do a bit more concrete breaking up thinking of him?

Phil: 00:38:56

I'm worried now she's laughing.

Hannah: 00:39:04

He's definitely passed the test, but, you know, Charlotte is irreplaceable. See you next week. Bye,.