£4m superlevy looking likely

DAIRY FARMERS look as if they will incur a superlevy of about £4m for the past milk year, according to new data from the Rural Payments Agency.

The temporary conversion figures show that farmers leased out a net 27.3m litres of wholesale quota to direct sellers, reducing the amount of quota available for them to produce against.

“It looks as though we are going to be roughly 16m litres over quota, before allowing for any butterfat conversion,” said Charles Holt of the Farm Consultancy Group.

Superlevy, if incurred, will be charged at about 25p/litre. The RPA will release the final figures at the end of this month.