COVID wool support scheme to close

The COVID-19 support scheme for NI wool producers closes for applications at midnight on Thursday (12 August).

DAERA confirmed on Tuesday that 3,000 out of 8,600 eligible farmers still had not submitted claims. All eligible farmers have received letters from DAERA which direct them to a short online application form. The scheme pays £1.40/head for all breeding ewes and ewe lambs put to the ram as recorded in the 2019 annual inventory.

Moy Park tops NI company list again

Moy Park has been ranked as the largest company in NI in terms of turnover for the tenth year in a row.

The annual list, compiled by Ulster Business magazine, shows the poultry processor had sales of £1.58bn in its most recently published accounts which spanned the 2019 calendar year.

Second place on the list went to grain traders W & R Barnett. With a turnover of £1.14bn, the company has a portfolio of businesses, including R & H Hall and John Thompson & Sons. Moy Park came second place in a separate table of the largest private sector employers in NI. The Craigavon headquartered firm had 5,097 workers on the list, with supermarket chain Tesco coming out top on 10,779 employees.

Green groups get £4.3m from DAERA

Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots has announced that 25 ‘not-for-profit’ organisations are to benefit from £4.3m under the DAERA Environment Fund.

The latest funding, which is targeted at 71 projects which will deliver nature recovery and help connect people with nature, brings the total allocated to environment projects via the fund in 2021/22 to approximately £7m.

Among those to benefit is the National Trust, who have been allocated £332,000 for a Mourne wildlife recovery project following the devastating fire which impacted the area in April 2021.