Scots farmers are in line for £2.25m EU cash boost

SCOTLAND'S dairy farmers will benefit by approximately £2.25 million following a Scottish Government decision to share out the emergency support cash allocated by the European Union finance ministers at a meeting in November last year.

Scotland's rural affairs secretary Richard Lochhead said that, after consulting the industry, who overwhelmingly favoured simplification, he decided to allocate the money on a flat term basis of 0.2 pence per litre.

This is to be based on production during the specified reference period from the beginning of October 2008 to the end of September 2009 and the same formula which will be used in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The exact amount payable to each farmer in Scotland will not be known until the production data during the specified period has been processed to identify eligible cases. For a million litre producer, the bonus will amount to approximately 2,000.

Member states must make the payments by the end of June 2010 and must notify the commission on their chosen method of allocation by the end of March.

Welcoming the decision, Jimmy Mitchell, NFU Scotland's milk chairman, said he was delighted that the Scottish Government had taken the simplest route to paying this European-wide fund to producers.

"While, at 0.2p per litre, the sums of money involved are relatively small, every little bit helps the industry as the majority of Scottish dairy farmers are continuing to struggle to achieve an acceptable and fair price for their milk," he said.

Mitchell went on to describe the cash as a bit of a "sticking plaster."