Monday, 10th November 2008
One farm going bust every two minutes in the EU
Speaking at the SAC Annual Dinner at Murrayfield on Monday (10th November), Scots Tory MEP Struan Stevenson said farming had reached a crisis with one farm going bust every two minutes in the EU.
Mr Stevenson said:
“Two hundred and seventy thousand (270,000) farms are going bust every year in the EU - that’s one every 2 minutes.
“At a time when an increasing number of Scottish sheep farmers are leaving hill and upland areas, this a deeply worrying trend.
“The depopulation of rural Scotland is obvious for all to see and the challenges and problems facing our agricultural sector are manifold.
“So it is no wonder that the industry is focussing on young people coming into farming, and as we heard last week, this is at an all-time low.
“In the UK 30% of farmers are aged over 65, while only 3% are aged under 35.
“Despite all the difficulties that the industry has faced over the past decade, there are a surprising number of keen, dynamic young men and women ready and willing to take up the challenge. But they need government support to help them get started.
“There is money available from the Brussels budget, but it has to be co-financed by the UK Treasury. That is where the problem arises!
“The UK government is simply not doing enough to work with the EU to access all the finance that is available.
“There is no such difficulty in France. The French government stands up for its farmers. Young farmers in France can apply for cash hand-outs to start up in farming. Young farmers in France receive a start-up premium of up to £25,000, or a subsidised loan of £80,000 and the interest (around 2%) is subsidised by the state.
“But here our farmers – young and old alike - are simply left to dangle in the wind…..hung out to dry by the UK government like so much dirty washing!
“It is vital that the UK government provides more funds to lever the EU funding available, otherwise our farming industry will just keep on struggling.
“Government, at every level, has responsibility to reverse this dreadful trend of farms going bust at a catastrophic rate.”
