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Farmers breathe a sigh of relief as final elements of the CAP deal agreed

The Ulster Farmers’ Union has said that while the final positions on regionalisation and transition decided by the NI Executive today (26 June) are not exactly what the Union was hoping for, farmers will be relieved that an agreement has finally been reached and Northern Ireland will not face a default position of an immediate transition to a single flat rate payment come 1st August.

Following a conversation with NI Agriculture Minister Michelle O’Neill, UFU president Ian Marshall said; “This hasn’t been an easy or smooth process for anyone involved and farmers across Northern Ireland have been seriously worried over the past few months that we would be facing a default position come 1st August. The fall-out would have been a complete disaster for the industry and undoubtedly it would have put many farm businesses at risk. The Agriculture Minister has been true to her word that she would not let it go to a default position and our politicians have done their bit to show their support for the future of farming in Northern Ireland.

“Farmers at least now know where they stand and while it isn’t exactly what the Union was hoping for we need to look at the positives. A seven year transition means that Northern Ireland has the longest transition period of all the UK regions and it gives farmers some time to adapt their businesses. However, this may be of little comfort to Northern Ireland’s beef farmers in disadvantaged areas (DA) who will be the ones hardest hit through a combination of redistribution under a single region and also coming out of the Area’s of Natural Constraint (ANC) scheme. The Union has always argued strongly that something needs to be done to support the entire suckler industry across Northern Ireland, and we still continue to press for targeted support for this vulnerable sector.

“When it comes to the single region, one positive farmers can hold on to is that DARD now has no excuse for any delay in getting direct payments out to farmers as soon as the payment window opens in 2015 and subsequent years under the new regime.”

Ian Marshall continued; “Wider UK convergence of direct payments, especially the ‘Scottish Factor’, still remains a threat to Northern Ireland and it is no secret that Scotland is still actively pursuing a review of UK CAP budget allocations. Since we are the only part of the UK to opt for a single region under the CAP and have an average direct payment well above the UK average we are an easy target for Scotland. It will be up to the Agriculture Minister to ensure that she defends our historical CAP allocation and prevents Northern Ireland farmers from losing €100million annually as Scotland look for a redistribution of CAP monies across the UK.”

Ian Marshall concluded; “As always, the devil will be in the detail but upon first inspection £250million for a ‘Farm Business Improvement Scheme’ to help to support the Agri-Food Strategy Board’s plans to grow the industry is good news. We also welcome the NI Executive’s commitment to match fund the European element of the 2014-2020 Rural Development Programme. Now that these key decisions have been taken we can move the process on. There is still a lot of work to be done but at the very least farmers have a better idea of what they are facing going forward.”