With a period of unprecedented change ahead for the farming industry, Norfolk's next NFU chairman has outlined some of the key challenges facing the industry during his tenure.

Tony Bambridge is managing director of B&C Farming at Marsham, a farming and contracting business specialising in seed potato production. He is also a tenant farmer at Park Farm in Blickling with his wife Emily, where he grows 123 acres of wheat, sugar beet and barley, as well as keeping a herd of Lincoln Red cattle.

After being selected by his county's members, he will formally take over the role of Norfolk chairman at the National Farmers' Union's national AGM in February.

He said: 'Without a doubt Norfolk is the primary farming county in England, so therefore to be chairman of the county's NFU is both an honour and a privilege. But I recognise the industry has many challenges and my job is to help the county's farmers in whatever way I can.'

Here are Mr Bambridge's thoughts on some of the issues ahead:

BREXIT & TRADE

'There are two ways to trade, and it is the inward trade that is potentially the biggest threat to us. If deals are done which open up our market to other people who for whatever reason may have some advantage over us, or some beneficial tariff, that could be quite damaging to our market.

'To a degree, we have experienced that within the EU, because we saw our pig industry having to comply with much higher standards, which raised their costs, while competing with other pig industries in the EU that didn't have to comply with those standards. That is one of the factors that has led to the decline of our pig industry.

'One of the challenges of this whole thing is there is going to be a plethora of people saying this is an opportunity for me to argue the case for my industry or my pet interest or my environmental concerns or my moral standing. So if the British trade negotiator does not receive a balanced lobby, if the agricultural voice is not heard, they could listen more to those voices which are not the best for this industry.

'How do you set the priorities? Is it cheap food at any cost, or is it a more balanced view that we want to support our British farmers because they support our British countryside and we have food security concerns?

'There are lots of considerations to take into account, of which agriculture is just one. But it is a justifiable position because it is about our farms and our landscapes and our food security. These are all very important considerations, because getting three meals a day is pretty important to most people.'

PUBLIC OPINION & 'BUYING BRITISH'

'I think it is very difficult to get across. There is a chunk of the public who think if something is in Tesco, or wherever they shop, then it must be good enough. Having done a bit of standing in supermarket car parks talking to people, you find that price or convenience, or whatever drives their choices, is the important thing, not necessarily the country of origin.

'We as an industry need to acknowledge that is where the public have got to. But if we sit in front of them face to face and say British produce is good and will you buy it , the answer is usually yes. But turning that verbal commitment into a shopping decision is jolly difficult.

'That does not stop any of us in the food supply chain from trying to inform the public better of the virtues of British food, but we need to recognise that the public making these shopping decisions will be led by a different set of criteria.'

SUBSIDIES & FOOD POLICY

'People talk about the CAP (the EU's Common Agricultural Policy) supporting wealthy farmers and helping the countryside, but actually it is a cheap food policy.

'Let's look at commodity 'X'. And let's say it costs £500 to produce a hectare of that product. The buyer thinks: 'I'm going to have to pay £500 plus a margin to get that'. But if they realise the farmer is getting £200 per hectare as a Single Farm Payment, he might think: 'I can get that product for £400 and the farmer still makes a profit.'

'If you look at Defra's figures, the profit made by farmers is less than the subsidy payment received, so they must have sold their goods at less than the cost of production. Hallelujah, the affordable food policy has worked! As soon as you take that support away you either have farmers going bust or you will have to put up the price of food.

'I think we will still have support (after Brexit), but I think it will be more closely linked with environmental benefits, and I think that is more defensible as an industry.

'It might be that some of our support does not come in direct support, but it goes towards these things that help us become more productive and more efficient and creates work in rural areas, such as reservoirs and grain stores. I personally support that idea very strongly.

'The current 'greening' measures are not all appropriate to the UK, but still have to be implemented. What we should move to is a situation where greening measures are entirely beneficial and logical to our farming systems and environment.'

REGULATION

'Many of the regulations we have to comply with are about food safety or preventing pollution of our environment. They are typically coming from fairly good common-sense perspectives, often influenced by our customers, which are the processors and retailers. I don't think any of them will go away, and nor should they, because when I go to a supermarket I expect that food to be safe.

'I do think that any science-driven responsible society should be perfectly happy with a risk-based assessment, as opposed to a precautionary approach, to assessing hazards in life. If there is an area we need to be working on, it is this area.

'We are surrounded by chemicals. We are made of chemicals. Everything we put in our mouths is a chemical. But just because it is a manufactured chemical, does not necessarily mean it is harmful. There are a number of things that are dangerous in great quantity, and safe in relatively small quantities. We have a whole suite of chemicals to help us do our job better, just like in medicine.

'The use of science to produce more and impact less in the regulated and controlled environment of the UK is a good option, with lots of green credentials. The alternative is to export that production to areas where we either take water from those areas least able to export their water via food products or the destruction of rainforests in other parts to cover our lost production.

'These elements are all damaging to the planet and we have abdicated the responsibility to look after the environment, as we have no controls and limited influence.

'The British tend to be more logical than some of our EU colleagues, who are more emotional, so I think there is a better chance of having a better science-based decision here in the UK rather than in the EU.'

RURAL CRIME

'The NFU will continue to have a good dialogue with the new police commissioner (Lorne Green, the police and crime commissioner for Norfolk) because rural crime, fly-tipping and petty theft are still a concern.

'We will be lobbying first to look at the issue of fly-tipped tyres. Why can't it be that for a tyre manufacturer, for every tyre they sell, they have to take in an old tyre, and the price of the new tyre has to include the cost of disposal? Why can't we find ways, through regulation, to stop fly-tipping?

'The police themselves have responded admirably in having a more joined-up approach. They are able to track vehicle movements, and policing through monitoring is much improved.

'This is not about the NFU moaning. It is about farmers trying to work with the police.'

BOVINE TB

'We should be relieved that we are still in an area that is free of TB (bovine tuberculosis). We need to try and ensure the whole of our industry prevents the spread of TB through unregulated cattle movements, and that we keep risk-based trading to keep TB out of our wildlife.

'All of the reactors we have had in East Anglia have been linked to cattle in the west country. But we have to support Defra's plan to eradicate TB and we need to ensure the voices of farmers in TB-free areas are heard.

'We need a holistic programme of TB-free cattle and TB-free wildlife. That is something that will be ongoing in the next two or three years.'