The jury is still out on holding the Balmoral Show in September

Visitor numbers were well down on the first two days of the event, leaving quite a number of trade exhibitors very unhappy at the level of foot fall they secured on their stands during that period.

I fully buy in to the premise that Balmoral Show is a shop window for the farming and food sectors. But surely holding the event, at whatever time of the year it takes place, is all about protecting the brand.

The other way of looking at this is to applaud the RUAS hierarchy for having the strength of character to push ahead with the event in the first place. Many will make the point that the farming and food sectors have been starved of opportunities to profile their wares for the past two years.

Northern Ireland is now home to a selection of the world’s elite premier livestock breeders. And these people need an effective vehicle to allow them showcase the investment they continue to make in the new genetics that will have a positive impact on farms here and abroad.

The Society will, I’m sure, make the point that ongoing Covid restrictions and many people’s continuing fear of contacting the disease will have served to restrict attendance levels, despite all the efforts made by the RUAS to fully comply with government and health service guidelines.

And, no doubt, this reality has been factored into Society thinking, where last week’s event was concerned.

Balmoral Show 2021 broke the mould, across the UK and Ireland, in being the only national event of note to have taken place within the farming and food sectors over the past 24 months.

The Highland and Royal Welsh Shows were cancelled this year and last while the same can also be said for the National Ploughing Championships in the Republic of Ireland.

The RUAS is a charity. It’s not supposed to make profits – in that strictly business sense. But it can rack up major losses, if the organisation’s fortunes take a nose dive.

Society accounts for last year have already confirmed a loss of circa £1m. And no doubt, even greater volumes of red ink will be required to reflect on its activities in 2021.

The silver lining within all of this is the commitment given by Northern Ireland’s farm minister Edwin Poots to compensate the RUAS for all Covid-related losses notched up over the past two years – provided a business case to this end can be made.

I sense the RUAS will have little difficulty in meeting this challenge. For the record, the Edinburgh and Cardiff Assemblies have already committed to ‘baling out’ the Royal Highland and Welsh Show respectively, where their Covid-related losses are concerned.

Poots, quite rightly, justifies his support for the RUAS on the grounds that Balmoral Show is just too important to lose within Northern Ireland’s annual calendar of events.

I also believe that Balmoral Show has an extremely bright future, not just here in Northern Ireland but as part of the infrastructure that makes up the entire farming and food industry of the entire island.

The strategic location of Balmoral Park was a key driver for the RUAS when the decision was taken to move there in the first place. The plan, from the outset, has been to construct a spur from the M1 motorway right up to the front door of the show grounds.

Once this is completed, easy access to Balmoral is guaranteed for any individual or family group living anywhere in Ireland. The potential dividend that can be generated by making all this a reality, both for the RUAS and Northern Ireland as a whole, is truly immense.

So much for the future. Balmoral Show 2021 is now fast disappearing in the rear view mirror. Next year should see the return of Balmoral Show as we all know and love it to be.....an event with a full house of trade stands, attracting elite animal breeders from all over Northern Ireland and beyond.

The Show will also take place during its normal time slot – the second full week of May. Given the fact that some people were not totally happy with the outworking of last week’s event, the need for the RUAS management team to make Balmoral 2022 a true spectacular is obvious.