Added EU support could pay livestock sector extra £75m

INCREASED “coupled” EU support could be worth £75 million to Scottish beef and sheep producers, rural affairs secretary Richard Lochhead told the Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers’ (SAMW)conference in Glasgow.

Lochhead reiterated his plea to UK Environment Secretary, Owen Paterson, to change his stance on the coupling of support in on-going negotiations on reform of the common agricultural policy (CAP).

Paterson has secured agreement from EU farm ministers to limit coupling to 7 per cent of the single farm payment (SFP) in the UK. The Scottish Government wants this to be increased to 15 per cent which would give Scotland an estimated £75m to support the country’s important beef and sheep industries with headage payments.

“Livestock production is disproportionately important to Scotland compared with the rest of the UK,” said Lochhead. “Without the lifeline of coupled support, the Scottish livestock industry simply would not be viable.”

He added: “It’s clear that Scotland’s case was completely overlooked in the CAP negotiations as the UK minister pursued the dogma of cutting the budget.”

Lochhead said reversing the downward trend in breeding stock numbers was the key challenge for Scotland to sustain the country’s vital meat processing sector and capitalise on opportunities for growth.

UK farm minister David Heath has indicated that Scotland could draw on the UK ceiling to boost coupled payments but Lochhead said this would leave Scotland “at the mercy” of London and it would have to be rubber-stamped by Brussels.

Scotland already uses the ceiling to top up the Scottish beef scheme which delivers £22m a year to Scottish beef producers.

SAMW president Alan McNaughton, site director of the 2 Sisters’ McIntosh Donald meat plant at Aberdeen, supported Lochhead’s plea for increased coupled payments. High prime cattle and sheep prices were squeezing processors’ margins and the price war between supermarkets had shielded consumers from price rises at retail level, he said.

“What’s going to happen when consumers have to pay the full price increases to support ex-farm prices,” he asked. “We need a sensibly applied support structure designed to give producers confidence without driving retail prices above what consumers will pay.”

Failure to come up with the right support package, he warned, would decimate the industry and leave Scotland as an “almost invisible player” in the international marketplace.

This would be a sad, even tragic, waste,” he said.

• The Scottish Government has announced a further £1m of funding for the ScotEID database to bring all sheep movements on to the system. The database will also have the capability of accommodating an electronic cattle movement system.