Regime change threatens hemp and flax support
Regime change threatens hemp and flax support
By Philip Clarke
FLAX and hemp growers face big cuts in support next season, after this weeks decision by farm ministers to reform the regime.
The changes will see area aid for both crops realigned with linseed, making it worth just k445/ha (£285/ha), compared with last years k709/ha (£447/ha) for flax and k663/ha (£418/ha) for hemp. And from 2002/03 it will be slashed again to the k371/ha (£234/ha) cereal rate.
To offset some of this, processors will get supplementary aid. For long fibre flax this will start at k100/t (£64/t) rising to k200/t (£128/t) by 2006. But short fibre flax and hemp, as grown in the UK, will only get k90/t (£56/t).
With fibre output at less than 1t/ha (0.4t/acre), this will not go far in replacing the £213/ha (£86/acre) loss of area aid some growers will be suffering, even assuming the cash is returned to producers in the form of higher prices.
A new system of maximum guaranteed quantities is also being introduced, limiting the UK to 12,150t at the full rate of processing aid. This is slightly more than current output.
EU farm commissioner, Franz Fischler, has welcomed the deal, saying it would put an end to so-called "premium hunting". The cost to the EU budget has more than doubled in the past five years to k158m. This reform will cut it by almost two-thirds.
But processors have warned it could devastate the fledgling UK industry, based on short fibre flax for industrial uses.
"We have made a significant investment in time, money and effort over the past 10 years," said Nigel Bazeley of merchant/processor Robin Appel. "This pulls the rug out from under us."
The EU had favoured traditional long-fibre flax growers in Belgium and France, he said, despite the fact the UK had developed new markets in speciality papers, car panelling and roof insulation.
Mr Bazeley was also worried that tougher admix rules would deprive UK processors of support. The new regulation sets a maximum threshold of 7.5% impurities. "Only about half of our production is within that limit."
These concerns were shared by the NFU, though it conceded the deal was better than that originally proposed by the commission, which would have paid just k40/t processing aid.
Union adviser Stuart Thompson also welcomed the fact that land sown to flax and hemp since 1998 would still be "eligible". Part of the attraction of growing these crops in the past is that they have qualified for subsidies on non-IACS land.
He was also relieved that crops currently in the ground would still qualify for area aid. Even though the commission has cut the budget this year to just k88m, there has been an estimated 35% cut in the total EU area, so existing crops should get similar money. *