Dairy farmers in NI who wish to take advantage of the voluntary €150m EU dairy aid scheme must submit their applications to the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) in Britain, which is administering the scheme on behalf of all UK regions.

Applications for the first reduction period, running from October to December 2016, must be submitted to the RPA by 21 September 2016. This application should include an indication of the planned reduction in volume compared to the previous year.

The scheme is set to pay around 12p/l for every litre of reduced milk supply over a three-month period. There will be four opportunities to apply (October to December 2016; November 2016 to January 2017; December 2016 to February 2017 or January to March 2017).

Farmers will only be able to apply once, except for those who apply in the first tranche, who could, in theory, apply again in tranche four. Whether the scheme is still open by the fourth tranche depends on the uptake. Money will be allocated on a first come, first served basis, and there is an EU-wide volume limit of 1.1mT. If this is exceeded in the first tranche, a reduction co-efficient will be applied, and tranches two to four will not proceed.

Aid will only be paid for a maximum of 50% milk reduction within the reference period. The minimum claim amount has been confirmed at 1,500kg (approx 1,457 litres).

If the actual reduction is less than the confirmed volume of litres initially notified to the RPA, then payment will be scaled back. If the reduction is 20% or less then no payment is made.

Only dairy farmers who were delivering milk in July 2016 are eligible to apply.

Following the first tranche, farmers’ applications for payment must be submitted by 14 February 2017. The first payments are to be made by end March 2017, with the last date for all payments being 30 September 2017.

Announcing the details of the scheme, Agriculture Minister Michelle McIlveen said: “I would encourage dairy farmers to consider the detail of the scheme rules carefully and to ensure that they have the necessary supporting documentation readily to hand, should they decide to submit an application.”

Further information and details on how to apply are available at www.gov.uk/guidance/milk-production-reduction-scheme-how-to-apply.

€350m package

The €150m reduction aid package is part of a wider €500m package of financial aid for the farm sector announced by EU Farm Commissioner Phil Hogan in July. The remaining €350m is for EU Exceptional Adjustment Aid, and has been allocated to member states to spend on measures that improve the economic sustainability of farms and that contribute to market stabilisation. The UK allocation is around €30m.

“I have made the case for NI to receive a significant share of the UK envelope of EU Exceptional Adjustment Aid. I am currently considering the options for how best to use our allocation and will make a further announcement about this aid at the earliest opportunity,” confirmed the Minister.