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Rt Hon David Curry MP is chairman of Dairy UK, the trade body which represents farmers, farmer co-operatives, plc processors and traders in negotiations with Government and the European Commission on issues including competition policy, industry structure, food safety and labelling, nutrition and environment.

David spent the early part of his career in journalism, including a nine-year stint with The Financial Times. In 1979, he was elected a Conservative MEP representing North East Essex. While there, he spent several years as chairman of the Agriculture Committee of the European Parliament.

He was elected MP for Skipton and Ripon in North Yorkshire in 1987 and has represented the constituency since then. He has held ministerial roles in Government and in opposition in several departments including MAFF, Environment and Agriculture.

What does being chairman of Dairy UK involve?
Being a non-executive chairman is rather like being a constitutional monarch: your role is to advise, warn, question and encourage. Chairing the Board meetings is just the tip of the iceberg. I want to be confident about the strategic direction of Dairy UK; be active in managing its relations with other organisations both public sector and private; in particular provide it with access to government both on a formal and informal basis.

What do you add to Dairy UK in your role as chairman?
I bring a political lifetime’s experience of agricultural, food and trade issues to the job. I chaired the European Parliament’s agriculture committee; I was farm minister during the negotiation of CAP reforms known as the McSharry reforms; I have chaired the Agriculture and Environment Select Committee in the House of Commons. I represent a farming constituency in the Yorkshire Dales. I bring to Dairy UK the technology of dealing with political issues – and practically all our issues boil down to politics in the end. In other words, nous. Plus knowing my way around the corridors of Government and Parliament and the EU Commission.

What do you see as Dairy UK’s role in the dairy industry?
Our job is to set out the industry’s case on a huge range of issues that will decide whether we survive and expand or join the list of so-called “sun-set” industries. There is a new politics – a new agenda – around now which barely existed five years ago. The most dramatic examples are climate change and obesity with its pressures to change recipes of dairy products, fat content, salt content, nutritional labelling (traffic lights and all that). Dairy UK has huge expertise in these areas- our people sometimes seem to live in government offices or at the Food Standards Agency or the Environment Agency. And these issues affect everyone in the dairy chain from the farmer to the milkman. On all these issues that affect the nitty-gritty day-to-day life of the industry Dairy UK is the premier spokesman for the industry.

How do you see Dairy UK working with other industry bodies going forward e.g. DairyCo, NFU?
The NFU has a distinct and separate role from Dairy UK as the farmers’ Union. But we work closely with it and we have the chairman of the NFU Milk Committee Gwyn Jones as part of the Dairy UK Board. We are building our relations with DairyCo, which has only just come into existence. I see us as the twin engines of the dairy industry airliner.

The perception among many farmers is that the plc processors decide the strategy of Dairy UK. With farmer co-op’s now playing an increasingly important role in UK processing, how can Dairy UK demonstrate that it talks for the whole industry, not just plc processors?
Overwhelmingly the work we do affects everybody in the supply chain. On the big questions of nutrition, obesity, environment there is no division at all between dairy companies and co-ops. The policies have to receive the support of everybody – if they did not I would not put them forward. We have to work through ideas until everyone is happy with them. I am ready to meet farmers and their organisations to spell out what we do – you do not survive as an MP in a rural Yorkshire constituency without learning to speak your mind and to be ready to take on issues.

Reading press coverage, Dairy UK seems to have an uneasy relationship with the Food Standards Agency on nutrition. How do you see that relationship going in the future?
Nutrition is a tough issue. Our job is to challenge FSA arguments where we think they are wrong but also to put forward ways of meeting their objectives when we think they make sense. So we need a relationship which is courteous and constructive backed up by strong science and a clear mandate from the industry to find solutions. We have access to the FSA at every level.

The Milk Roadmap demonstrates a clear partnership with Defra on environmental matters. How do you see that relationship going in the future?
We must work closely with Defra. There is no point in being at war with the Government. The Government has its agendas and we need to negotiate to get outcomes that recognise the role of the dairy industry in innovation, rural management, environmental protection and delivering an exciting, affordable, healthy product which consumers want to buy. I can speak to the Secretary of State at very short notice where necessary but we engage with Defra at every level. In truth, we are as necessary to Defra as they are to us: I know from my time as a minister that organisations which speak for their members and bring expertise and common sense to the table are worth their weight in gold.