As the beef row with France intensifies, Daily Echo reporter Martin Halfpenny gauges reaction in Hampshire. He finds that customers are buying British farm produce to make a stand.

HAMPSHIRE'S 1,200 full-time farmers have been having a lean time in the last few years, according to the National Farmers' Union.

Over the last two years farmers have experienced a 75 per cent drop in incomes due to the BSE scare and the high value of the pound affecting exports.

Even the cost of implementing increased regulation to make meat safe has made things worse.

Unfortunately the ban by the French is only the latest problem in a bumpy decade.

But beef is not the only area affected. Pig and lamb prices have also fallen, it has been revealed.

Figures from the NFU show that lambs are fetching only £30 at market - half what they were getting three years ago.

This constant drop in prices has seen farmers giving up.

Spokeswoman for the NFU in the South-East Isobel Bretherton said that farmers are taking early retirement, emigrating or being forced to rely on state benefits to survive.

"This pressure has led to farmers in despair taking their lives," she said.

Although definitive figures are not available, the NFU says that farmers are in the second highest risk category for suicides.

Ms Bretherton added: "Just six weeks ago a farmer tried to hang himself and we have people on the phone in tears - it's a pretty awful situation."

The NFU also want to put across that the lifting of the beef ban by the European Union is only a partial measure as the meat that can be exported must be de-boned and can only be processed through one factory in Cornwall. Also no live cattle can, as yet, be exported.

But it's not all bad news. Home confidence in British beef has returned as consumption of beef burgers in the UK are back to pre-BSE levels. In June this year consumers spent £14.5 million on beef burgers alone - more than 1995 levels.

<For more of Martin Halfpenny's special report see tonight's Daily Echo.

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