Pig farmers welcome cash assurance
9 February 2001
Pig farmers welcome cash assurance
By FWi staff
PIG farmers have welcomed an assurance that cash not allocated under the first year of the 66 million industry restructuring scheme will still be available.
The government has allocated 26m for the first year of the three-year scheme, and 20m for each of the final two.
The money will go to farmers who have left the industry and those who want help restructuring their businesses.
But National Pig Association regional manager Ian Campbell said there had been fears that farmers might not see some of the 26m allocated for the first year.
Delays in getting approval for the scheme, announced last March, mean hardly any payments will be made by this April, the end of the first year.
He said farm minister Nick Browns announcement that any “underspend” this year on the scheme will be carried forward was “great news”.
Mr Brown made the announcement at the NFU conference in London on Wednesday (7 February)
Mr Campbell said refusing to allow cash to be carried forward would have flown in the face of Government and industry efforts to get the scheme running.