The Department of Agriculture has set a very tight deadline of Tuesday 30 June for the return of forms for those interested in taking part in the deferred superlevy payment scheme.

The EU scheme is effectively an interest-free loan to those dairy farmers who have a superlevy fine following oversupply of milk for the last quota year, which ended on 31 March 2015. It means farmers can pay off a third of the penalty this year and the balance over the following two years.

All processors are offering the deferred payment scheme to farmers and most have written directly to those affected this week to outline the proposal. Others have sent suppliers a text or have individually phoned farmers to alert them to the deadline next week.

The Irish Farmers Journal understands that many farmers with smaller fines are anxious to clear the penalty this year and won’t take up the scheme, while larger farmers with big penalties will definitely opt for the deferred payment scheme.

There will be a slight revision in the final amount of superlevy due for some suppliers when National Fleximilk is released in August, but amounts are expected to be small. Final payments will be adjusted to reflect this.

Glanbia

In Glanbia, one-15th of the 2014/’15 superlevy liability was deducted from the May milk account. A letter has been issued to all affected milk suppliers this week with details of their individual bill and their two payment options. Option one is to have the superlevy balance deducted in four equal parts from June, July, August and September 2015 milk accounts. Option two is the deferred payment scheme, which allows payment over five months in each of three years – 2015, 2016 and 2017. If no reply is made, then it is assumed option one is the preferred method, and the bill will deducted in four equal parts from June, July, August and September 2015 milk accounts.

Arrabawn

A spokesperson for Arrabawn said suppliers have been informed with a letter sent on Wednesday outlining the options for payment. The spokesperson said suppliers who want to avail of the scheme need to get forms signed immediately. Liability varies between supplier and some that have most of the penalty paid will be getting money back if they opt for the deferred payment scheme, but this might not get back to farmers until the August cheque.

West Cork

Lisavaird has contacted all suppliers individually and, if interested, suppliers are calling into the co-op to fill in the required details. The co-op has collected about one-third of the €1m owed so it won’t be collecting much extra penalty money this year.

Bandon is working with individual suppliers also and expects those with larger penalties to join the scheme.

In Barryroe, there will be two clinic days this week for suppliers to call into the co-op to decide about the scheme and fill in the forms. All suppliers affected were contacted individually and most have paid one-third of the expected penalty already.

Drinagh has already collected one-sixth of the expected penalty once a supplier was over. It expects to collect the balance of the one third payment in August.

Lakeland

Again Lakeland has sent letters to suppliers affected this week but it has already started collecting money from those suppliers that exceeded quota. Starting in April and anticipating that one-third of the penalty would be due this year, the co-op set about collecting one-fifth of the one third payment due in April and will continue for May to August.