The Farmers’ Union of Wales’ campaign #FarmingMatters has been recognised at the UK Public Affairs Awards as the best campaign in Wales.

For the past 18 months the FUW has been busy highlighting why farming matters and when the UK voted to leave the EU in June 2016, immediately realised the need to raise awareness of the concerns for farming in Wales, mainly due to Welsh farmers’ strong trading relationship with the EU.

FUW managing director Alan Davies said: “For us at the FUW it became critical to highlight the potential impact any failed trade negotiations could have on the wider economy and multiple small businesses in the supply chain. The FUW further needed to create awareness, promote understanding and develop knowledge of the farming sector in Wales.

“It was determined that we needed to create an easy to remember message that raised the profile of farming in Wales and the risks to its future and we wanted this to be a phrase that tripped off the tongue.”

The FUW ensured that the campaign was based on evidence in terms of importance, highlighting that farming is the backbone of the Welsh food and drinks sector, which employs 222,400 people, 17 per cent of the Welsh workforce.

The campaign further demonstrated that Welsh family farms do so much more than just produce food – they are the cornerstone of our rural economies and Welsh food production sustains tens of thousands of other businesses from upstream businesses such as feed merchants, agricultural contractors and engineers, to downstream businesses such as hauliers, processors and retailers.

The FUW, through the #FarmingMatters campaign, communicated that other benefits of Welsh farming include major contributions to negating the causes and symptoms of climate change, whether through the storage of carbon in farm woodland, hedgerows and peat bogs, or the generation of green electricity through on-farm wind and water turbines.

By providing employment and economic growth in rural areas, the farming sector also mitigates rural depopulation, protects rural culture and heritage and keeps the Welsh language alive.

The #FarmingMatters campaign resulted in most Assembly Members, including First Minister Carwyn Jones, giving their clear commitment and backing to the Welsh farming industry, adopting key messages around trade post-Brexit.

“There were also some unexpected benefits. Due to the success of the #FarmingMatters campaign we were able to convince a group of Labour politicians, primarily from urban constituencies, to come together at the Welsh Labour party conference in March 2017, to demonstrate support for rural Wales.

"We will continue this campaign over the coming year and hope it will reach many more people, creating even better understanding amongst politicians and the public,” added Alan Davies.