Manx farmers facing perfect storm of rising costs, says minister

The Isle of Man has an active meat, dairy and arable farming sector

Farmers on the Isle of Man are facing a "perfect storm" of rising industry costs, a minister has said.

Issues include fertiliser and diesel price rises, an increase in labour costs and grain supply shortages.

Environment, Food and Agriculture Minister Clare Barber said farmers were being hit "from every angle".

It follows the announcement that the price of Manx milk is to rise by 8% in April due to a hike in manufacturing and farming costs.

Ms Barber said: "All of these different pieces have come together to create something of a perfect storm within the industry, which is certainly causing a large amount of concern for farmers."

Clare Barber said production costs were rising on the island, similar those seen in the UK

Ms Barber said there was a wider issue on the island of food security and it was time to consider "how people can reduce reliance on some of those products that are seeing the most stark rises".

She said she planned to look within the department to assess where subsidies could be better allocated, and make sure the industry was running as efficiently as it could.

Ms Barber said the department needed to "make sure we maintain a resilient farming community" and her priority would be to listen to people "working on the ground" to see how the current cost increases were impacting on a day-to-day level.

"I certainly don't want to see us losing farmers... it's really important that we keep our active farmers and we make sure the support is properly targeted," she added.