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A total of 11,351 businesses in NI are due a payment from the £25m support fund coming from the Stormont Executive to compensate dairy, beef, sheep, potato and ornamental horticulture sectors for losses due to COVID-19.
The application window for livestock farmers opened on Monday 7 September and it closes at midnight on Wednesday 23 September.
For potato growers, the scheme opened on Wednesday 9 September and closes on Wednesday 30 September. The payment window for ornamental horticulture will be opened at a later date.
With DAERA committed to making full Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payments from 16 October 2020, as opposed to a 70% advance as happened in recent years, Department officials want to get this COVID-19 money processed ahead of BPS claims. Payments to livestock farmers under the COVID-19 scheme will be made within two weeks of the closing date of 23 September.
In total, £11m is going to dairy farmers, £7m to beef, £232,000 to sheep, and up to £1.6m going to both potatoes and ornamental horticulture. Out of the initial £25m, that leaves £3.6m unallocated.
There is also a further £3.6m that was found within DAERA’s existing budget, meaning a total pot of £7.2m is still available to address any additional issues that COVID-19 might present in the future.
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