Tony and his wife Gwen have been involved in the egg industry in Wales for nearly thirty years, initially in cage egg production but over the years have converted entirely to free range eggs. Apart from their own production unit they also pack eggs from another five farms - all Wales based.

Tony is a strong advocate of regional food production especially ‘Brand Wales’ and was named ‘Farmers Weekly’ Poultry Farmer of the year in 2006, along with the title of Ceredigion food producer of the year.

Mr Burgess said, “Here in Wales we are fortunate to have a NFU Cymru who represent us in Welsh Assembly, Westminster and Brussels, in addition they identifying consumers needs, without which none of us would be here. We are currently in a consumer led industry and I’d urge welsh poultry farmers to take full advantage of the marketing and selling opportunities for our regionally produced food. Consumers are becoming ever increasingly aware of food production and as such are more discerning and discriminating and more importantly are prepared to pay more for food that matches their criteria.

“Many poultry and egg producers in Wales are on quite a small scale and geographically distant from feed mills. Therefore they do not benefit from the economies of scale experienced by many of the larger producers. We are currently paying £25 per ton more for our feed and therefore we must seek other marketing options apart from price to achieve a competitive advantage. I would like to see poultry producers in Wales forming a buying group to negotiate on mass with feed mills, packaging companies and even energy providers, just think of what a £10 per ton reduction in feed could mean.

Tony continued, “With regard to chicken production, I know there is increased consumer demand for free- range and high welfare standard birds, hopefully producers will see this as an opportunity to reach new markets, increase sales and achieve greater returns.

He concluded with, “Over the next year I hope to visit and listen to NFU Cymru members throughout Wales to gain an insight into all aspects of the poultry process. We are currently fortunate in Wales to have Elin Jones as the Rural Affairs Minister who is approachable and appears genuinely concerned with rural issues and is aware of the rural communities’ problems as a whole. I will always take every opportunity to inform her of all issues relating to our industry.”