New pub menu gives a real taste of Wales

The new menu, which will be printed in both English and Welsh, will showcase a range of food and drink from suppliers across Wales, as well as meat from Welsh farms. Among the meals are Welsh Dragon sausages, Welsh beef and ale pie and Welsh Celtic Pride beef cottage pie.

The menu will be available across all 50 of JD Wetherspoon’s establishments in Wales.

I’m delighted to hear the news that a well-established high street pub chain like JD Wetherspoon has introduced this menu. In doing so they are complementing the plethora of other independent pubs and restaurants across Wales who already prioritise providing their customers with Welsh produce.

This increased backing can only be a good thing for the Welsh food and drink industry and, consequently, Welsh farmers and growers. I’m sure this Welsh addition to Wetherspoon’s menu will prove extremely popular with punters in Wales.

Aside from this promising news for Welsh food and drink, on Monday of last week NFU Welshpool was pleased to support the Breeding Ewes Sale at Welshpool Livestock Sales.

The sale attracted fantastic support with crowds of people flocking to trade on over 3,000 breeding ewes from both local and distant vendors. Purchasers attended from right across the UK - from Mid Wales and the borders as well as North and South Wales, the Midlands and North and South England.

We saw a great mixture of sheep ages and breeds - although predominately Welsh Mule and Texel. NFU Welshpool sponsored the event with prizes being awarded for the best pens of yearling ewes.

Catalogue sales at Welshpool Livestock Sales were introduced in 2016 to increase through put and entice new purchasers. This has been highly successful with 2016 seeing a five per cent increase on the number of breeding ewes to go under the hammer than in 2015. Currently the market has seen an increase of 83 per cent in throughput in period July 1 to September 1, 2017 over the same period in 2016.

NFU Welshpool will be supporting other sales at Welshpool Livestock Sales in the future. We encourage everyone to get down to their local market - there is no better place to network, trade and do vital business.

Stephen Kenyon, NFU Welshpool