Happy to see raise in diesel prices!

The public at present aren't too happy with the increase in fuel prices, but one man who hasn't complained at all is Llyr Jones from Llanfihangel Glyn Myfyr. He has established an ambitious project with two other local farmers - Bryn Jones and Medwyn Roberts, to produce and process general vegetable oil and turn it into fuel - the first company of its kind in Wales and only the second in Britain.

After receiving payments from the Assembly and Snowdonia National Park, the three have adapted a barn on one of their farms, have bought presses from Germany, filters from Denmark and have got large bins in place for the rape seed oil. The processing has only just begun but the aim is to produce 1.3 million litres of diesel to begin with and then extend this to 2.6 million litres and 2,500 tonnes of feed. At present, the crew have to buy the rape from Staffordshire, Herefordshire and Shropshire but the aim is to promote and encourage farmers in north Wales to grow the raw materials in the future.

With diesel prices now having passed £1.30, farmers and lorry drivers have had enough and are looking for other options. Is bio-fuel therefore the answer? The main appeal is of course its cost. This diesel would be available at around 30-40% cheaper than normal diesel - quite a saving therefore to those that use large amounts of diesel every day. But to those farmers that would decide to grow bio-crops for the company, they would then receive around £25 a hectare in European payments as well as the opportunity to buy the fuel and the feed at a price considerable less than average.

With some forecasting that the prices at the pump could reach up to £1.50 by Christmas, would these financial inducements be enough to make other farmers think seriously about growing crops suitable for bio-fuels? Is the answer to the oil crisis closer to home than we had previously though?

The Ffermio Bulletin will be at the Open Day at Derwydd Farm in Llanfihangel Glyn Myfyr on Thursday June 12^th to see how interested farmers will be in this scheme.