Coronavirus: Hardship fee for dairy farmers thought of

The federal government is known to be contemplating a hardship fee for dairy farmers after warnings tens of hundreds of cows might be slaughtered.

Demand for dairy merchandise within the hospitality sector has dropped with the closure of many cafes and eating places.

George Eustice will focus on the difficulty with senior Tories, whereas talks with MPs and commerce reps are due on Tuesday.

The Division for Setting, Meals and Rural Affairs mentioned it had relaxed competitors legislation to assist the trade.

It additionally mentioned that farmers may entry present monetary assist measures.

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The coronavirus outbreak has led to issues for the dairy trade, with some farmers pressured to discard milk.

It’s thought a hardship fund may take the type of a focused time-limited fee for badly affected farmers.

The previous setting secretary, Owen Paterson, mentioned: “There may be an pressing want for some type of speedy hardship fund for the minority of dairy farmers, who briefly don’t have any marketplace for their milk, to keep away from seeing cows slaughtered.”

Conservative MP Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown mentioned he believed a focused, time-limited fee may value £10m to £20m.

“I do not need to see tens of hundreds of cows slaughtered unnecessarily because of coronavirus,” he mentioned.

The chair of the Welsh Affairs choose committee, Stephen Crabb, mentioned he understood why Defra wished to take time to evaluate the issue however “the time for motion has come”.

“Some type of hardship fee does have to be made accessible for the farmers most affected.”

He added: “The difficulty of slaughter has been raised by native farmers. It would not seem that it is prone to occur tomorrow however may, if the best motion is not taken, be a long term consequence.”

Chris Loder, the Conservative MP for West Dorset, mentioned: “The federal government should act urgently to supply a hardship fund to assist dairy farmers in determined must keep away from any culling of the nationwide herd.”

The Nationwide Farmers Union, Dairy UK and the Provision Commerce Federation have proposed motion together with focused grant assist and a scheme whereby some cows would successfully be “furloughed”.

‘Excellent storm’

It is understood that, throughout current convention calls, trade members have raised a “doomsday state of affairs” of 80,000 cows being culled – out of a nationwide herd of practically two million.

Nevertheless, that determine has been downplayed by some together with Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, who described such a quantity as “extremely unlikely”.

The plunge in demand from the hospitality sector comes as UK milk manufacturing approaches its annual seasonal peak.

Phil Langslow, chair of the Provision Commerce Federation, described the scenario as a “excellent storm”.

Mr Langslow, who’s additionally a director at County Milk Merchandise, estimates that 20m litres of liquid milk per week would usually have been going into the meals service with solely round 20% of that market nonetheless viable in the course of the present lockdown.

In a letter to MPs final week Mr Eustice mentioned: “Between 5% and 10% of whole milk manufacturing goes to the meals service commerce and there’s subsequently a small proportion of milk manufacturing that at the moment has no house.

“The overwhelming majority of Britain’s 10,000 dairy farmers proceed to provide their contracts on the regular value.”

However Mr Eustice’s letter has attracted criticism from some trade figures.

“I have not heard a single farmer who thought that was correct,” mentioned Joe Stanley, Leicestershire NFU’s vice-chair.

He claimed that the federal government had “vastly underplayed” the issue.

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A Defra spokesperson mentioned the federal government was working intently with the NFU, Dairy UK and different stakeholders.

“We have now already relaxed competitors legal guidelines to permit the dairy trade to reroute surplus milk and adapt to modifications within the provide chain.

“We additionally welcome the initiative from milk suppliers and their farmers to briefly cut back the quantities they’re producing, by way of a variety of choices, in order that when the demand returns it may be met by our dairy farmers.

“We are going to proceed to work with the trade to grasp the potential impacts on farmers and in addition urge them to entry the present bundle of presidency monetary assist accessible.”