By unlocking the export potential China offers the pig industry, not to mention the red meat sector as a whole, we could gain entry into a marketplace which comprises a fifth of the world’s population.EU approves £20m crisis aid option for UK farmers
THE European Commission has approved a temporary scheme which could give British farmers access to state aid of just over £13,000 per farm to cope with the effects of the economic crisis.
The scheme doubles the amount of cash Defra would normally be allowed to give to farmers under conventional state aid rules.
In theory the Commission has given Defra permission to spend £20 million of its own money before the end of 2010 to help farmers out of the economic crisis, without fear of contravening state aid rules.
However, a Defra spokesman said the Department would only take advantage of the new rules under special circumstances.
“It’s important to realise this is not new money from Europe – but it will mean that we can be more flexible and responsive to farmers in special circumstances – which is good news for everyone,” said the spokesman.
The aid scheme is part of a wider package agreed by the EU last year, which provides funding to various economic sectors which were affected by the recession.
The Commission said the aid would ‘take the form of a direct grant, interest rate subsidy loan, with an aid element and guarantee’.
It added farmers across all sectors were eligible for aid, provided they were not experiencing difficulty before the beginning of the economic crisis in July 2008.
The measures were approved by the Commission today (Tuesday, March 30) under the conditions of the Temporary Crisis Framework after a UK application demonstrated a need for support.
Sources in Brussels confirmed other EU member states would be using the framework to give their farmers a crisis grant, adding pressure on Defra to follow suit.
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Readers' comments (18)
Dairy Farmer | 30 March 2010 1:19 pm
I bet DEFRA will gobble up half of it in administration fees and then make the rest of it conditional on jumping through a million hoops!
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Anonymous | 30 March 2010 2:24 pm
sadly true.
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Anonymous | 30 March 2010 3:04 pm
It will also take DEFRA the whole of this year to pay any small amounts of the money out!
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Anonymous | 30 March 2010 4:11 pm
Defra will use to to pay for long awaited seminars and workshops, where less experienced idividuals will teach farmers valuable new skills; like sucking eggs etc
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Anonymous | 30 March 2010 4:27 pm
sad fact is our government probably wont even take up the offer from the E.U!!
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Tessa Coe | 30 March 2010 5:04 pm
DEFRA doesn't have £20 million to spend anyway because it spends that sort of money on on EU fines and RPA bungles chuf chuf
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Anonymous | 30 March 2010 5:30 pm
I totally agree with dairy farmer.
If there is a £20 million it should totally bypass Defra
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Anonymous | 30 March 2010 6:16 pm
What little of this money filters through if any, will be swallowed up by the larger farms rather than to the mid to small farms that need it most, but to be honest I will be surprised to see any of it.
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Anonymous | 30 March 2010 6:37 pm
i love the fact that they only assume dairy farmers have found it a struggle for less than 2 years, most of us could have struggled through 2 years how about the other 10 of crap milk and beef prices, good luck with finding a dairy farmer that wasnt having problems prior to 2008, well it will get the dole queues down for five minutes
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mixed farm | 30 March 2010 7:29 pm
Im still waiting for 2009 sps,
Apparently the computers carn't cope, So how will they manage with this????
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