Beef producers in Scotland will begin to receive their share of £22 million in vital funding from next week, Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead has announced.
The money from the Scottish Beef Scheme (SBS) will begin to arrive in farmers’ bank accounts from Thursday 17 April and it’s expected that 95 per cent of producers will have been paid by Wednesday 23 April.
Almost 7,500 producers claimed for just under 406,000 animals in 2013.
Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead said:
“Scotland’s hard-pressed livestock producers are extremely important to the rural economy and these payments will provide timely support for them.
“The Scottish Government has a track record of delivering these payments as quickly as possible and I’m confident that this money will be arriving in the bank accounts of most producers by the 23rd of April.”
Last week the EU Commission u-turned on its initial agreement for Scotland to offer farmers a higher rate of coupled support.
Mr Lochhead added: “Scottish Beef Scheme is an example of coupled support in action and working for Scotland’s producers. However, Scottish farmers have been dealt a horrific hand following the spectacular u-turn in Europe; I cannot fathom why we are losing out again.
“It just compounds the industry anger over the UK Government’s denial to hand over the full 223 million convergence uplift to our farmers – which then offered Scotland the use of the UK’s flexibility on coupled support as a concession for that unacceptable decision.
“Effectively, they have picked the pockets of Scottish farmers.
“If Scotland had been independent in the last round of CAP negotiations we would have been entitled to an additional 1 billion in direct farm payments and could have been able to secure hundreds of millions more in rural development funding as other countries, such as Ireland, have done.
“And, like the Irish, we could have been able to create a £40 million a year support scheme for beef, which could have given the equivalent of £205 per cow in the specialist beef sector.
“Instead, the harsh reality is that we are having to deal with budget cuts passed down from the UK Government and make difficult decisions. Although the Scottish Government is doing what it can to maintain rural development funding at current levels, we still have a reduction in real terms and spending will have to be prioritised.”
