Rural Affairs
Farmers must still rely on support cash, report reveals
A NEW report shows many farms are still having to rely on support payments to keep them afloat.
Business advisers say that during 2006-07 the payments averaged £45,000 per farm - 97 per cent of the £46,300 average net profit.
The annual farm profit survey by the Institute of Chartered Accountants' Farming & Rural Business Group (FRBG) was based on the 2006 harvest.
Andrew Ayre, FRBG North-East spokesman, said: "It serves to remind us that farms and rural businesses are still being supported by subsidies and that profits are still not at a level where earnings can be retained."
The profit - which coincided with average drawings - was from an average farm turnover of £312,600.
| "It serves to remind us that farms and rural businesses are still being supported by subsidies and that profits are still not at a level where earnings can be retained." | | Andrew Ayre |
|
Mr Ayre said: "Better cereal prices currently give rise to some optimism
though livestock farmers continue to have a difficult time."
Grain and milk prices have improved but rising feed, fuel, fertiliser and seed costs are causing problems.
"It remains to be seen how much the margin - and hence the profit for the farmer - will actually increase," he said.
A spokeswoman for the NFU North-East region was not surprised by the report.
Common Agricultural Policy reform, which will see support payments phased out in 2012, is designed to give farmers time to make a proper return from the marketplace.
But she said: "This has proved virtually impossible, with farmgate prices consistently below the cost of production.
"Better grain prices have been well publicised but higher feed prices have hit the livestock sector hard, and increasing costs do not stop there."
Last year's outbreaks of foot and mouth and bluetongue disease had brought many livestock farmers to their knees financially.
The Farm Crisis Network has reported spiralling farm debt, some at very worrying levels.
The spokeswoman said: "The need for higher farmgate prices, that not only cover the cost of production and allow farm investment but also deliver a modest profit, are more urgent than ever if farmers are to break their reliance on support payments - especially as these will reduce to very low levels by 2012."
4:57pm Wednesday 23rd January 2008
Print 
Email this 
Comment
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
