...but want cash for a ferry • In the same
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week that they blockaded Irish trucks, Welsh farmers are calling on hauliers for donations in their quest to create the UK's only livestock ferry service.
Farmers' Ferry, which hopes to set up a service between Dover and Dunkirk by the end of July, says livestock hauliers who would benefit financially from the operation should think about contributing towards its start-up costs.
The group is trying to raise £1.3m so interest earned by the money can subsidise the cost of the service in its early days. The organisation has chartered a RO-RO ferry and hopes to start operating with at least one service a day, five days a week.
Farmers want to start exporting their lambs to the Continent by early July, finishing their season by late autumn. Last year 440,000 live lambs and sheep—around 1,100 truck loads—were exported for slaughter abroad.
Gwent farmer and Farmers' Ferry chairman and director Terry Bayliss says: "If hauliers were to earn money by being able to use the service, they could think of contributing towards it." The Farmers' Ferry service would be used mainly for sheep exports, but Bayliss says there has been extra interest in it since the European Commission's announcement on ending the beef ban.
Contact Farmers' Ferry via ADMS, PO Box 1, Portishead, Bristol BS1 9BR.