Farmers in Northern Ireland will receive 70% advanced CAP payments from mid-October, the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) confirmed in a statement on Tuesday.

Last month, DAERA applied to the European Commission for the level of advanced payments to increase from 50% to 70% of claim values.

The department successfully obtained European Commission approval to issue advance payments at the higher rate and based its application on the reduction in farm incomes being experienced this year, particularly on cattle and sheep farms.

Balance payments

The first advanced payments will be issued to farmers with fully-verified claims from 16 October 2019.

Balance payments worth 30% of claims, or full payments for farmers who were not eligible for an advance payment, will be issued from 2 December 2019.

This will be the fourth year in a row that DAERA has been able to issue advanced payments from mid-October.

It will also be the fourth time that the advanced payment rate has increased in Northern Ireland from 50% to 70%.

Average exchange rate

CAP payments to NI farmers will be converted from euro to sterling based on the average exchange rate over the month of September.

A report published by the Department for the Economy on Monday stated that every 1p change in the value of sterling against the euro changes the amount paid by around £3.2m.

Last year, payments were converted at a rate of €1=0.89p. On Tuesday, sterling was trading at €1=0.91p.

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