NFU’s Raymond named Copa-Cogeca chair

NFU dairy board chairman Mansel Raymond has been elected chairman of the European agricultural union’s milk and dairy products working group. Copa (Committee of Professional Agricultural Organisations in the European Union) and Cogeca (General Confederation of Agricultural Cooperatives in the European Union) are the organisations that represent the vast majority of dairy producers and their co-operatives in the European Union. Raymond, who farms in Pembrokeshire, had been vice chairman of the Copa-Cogeca group since 2010. He says: “I am delighted to be voted in as the group’s new chairman and look to continue the hard work of my predecessor Henri Brichart. Our immediate priorities will be to guarantee fairness across the supply chain, ensure implementation of the dairy package and obtain a good result from the CAP reform negotiations for all EU dairy farmers.”

Tommaso Abrate, from the Italian Co-operative organisation, Confcooperative was re-elected vice chairman and Mr Sami Kilpelainen from the Finnish farming organisation, MTK becomes the second vice chairman.

Meanwhile, the NFU dairy board has welcomed four new appointed members. All dairy farmers, the appointments include; Philip Latham, a Nuffield Scholar, from Cheshire, James Miller, who is also a farm business consultant, from Somerset, Ruth Kimber, who markets Rose veal as part of the family business in Somerset, and Tom Rawson, a previous member of the Next Generation Dairy Board and Dairyco board member and Nuffield Scholar, from West Yorkshire.