A top boss at a credit company believes that British farmers will be safer and more independent post Brexit.

John Mulheron, Managing director at CMF Capital, believes that the agriculture industry is the most exposed after Brexit, with over £2billion in subsidies paid each year to offset the fact that businesses don’t receive a fair farm-gate prices.

Furthermore, he thinks that there are many goals to be reconciled and rewritten regarding agricultural policy, and that food needs to be affordable for consumers yet balanced against a reasonable income for producers.

Mr Mulheron said: "With the majority of farmers voting to be free of the EU, at least now we have some clarity of how we intend to shape our future as regards trading relations. Though how this works across the various key industry sectors or how it will play out still isn’t clear and that is even before we’ve started any formal negotiations. Whitehall should take note that agriculture contributes £9.9bn to our GDP, is worth over £280bn and employs close to half a million people.

“At CMF Capital, we have funded numerous projects within the agriculture industry, from renewable energy solutions, large scale machinery or helping farmer’s diversification strategies. We know from first hand, that as traditional revenue streams dry up, the industry has had to look to non-typical opportunities as a way of paying the bills. Research shows that around 57,000 farmers have already diversified their businesses. On paper, it is often attractive and exciting, but it comes with another in-tray of things to understand, manage and finance.

“Yes, Brexit will be a nervous time and the impression has so far been defensive and closed, obsessed with reducing immigration. This has been balanced with a number of wins in terms of investment and commitment from multinationals, but if Theresa May believes in her ‘shared society’ we have to invest in our heritage industries – engineering, manufacturing and farming – to make them more competitive whether it’s exporting globally or reducing our reliance on imports.

“A fairer farming subsidy would see investment in future technologies and finding ways to excite and recruit the next generation into a viable industry that they can make a success of things by being more productive and maybe being able to spend time with their families. It would see additional streams of funding for previously non-core projects such as renewable energy; which the agriculture industry already contributes around 23% of power into the grid.”