An amazing statistic was brought to my attention the other day.
According to research by the National Farm Research Unit in Suffolk, an estimated 7% of farmers have elected to receive their single farm payments in euros this year.
The press release accompanying the research findings suggests this is a pretty low figure, pointing to the fact that "farmers are experts in farming and not necessarily experts in finance or currency exchange".
To my mind, however, 7% is a remarkably high figure. Last year just 700 or so farmers elected to receive their SFPs in euros - that's equivalent to about 0.7% of the farming population as opposed to 7% this year.
It goes to show that many farmers have responded to the strong messages coming out from foreign exchange specialists, and supported by this blog, that pre-booking euro exchange rates while the pound was weak could be a good idea....
But 7% is not the "amazing" statistic I was thinking about. According to the same survey of over 5000 farmers, while 69% said they would be paid in sterling, 23% did not actually know which currency they would be paid in.
I find that just incredible!
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