Published: Wednesday, 27th January, 2010 5:00pm

Cavan gets €13.8m in FWMS

Pig farmers now have another market for their products.

• Smith confirms payment of €13.8m under Farm Waste Management Scheme to Cavan farmers

• €67.5m now paid out in total to the county

Minister Brendan Smith has confirmed that his department has completed payments of over €13.8m under the Farm Waste Management Scheme to farmers in Co. Cavan.

The payments represent the second tranche of the 40% due under the scheme and will be followed in early 2011 by the final balancing payments of 20%. The Minister confirmed that since the start of last year, a total of €34.3m has been paid out to Cavan under the Farm Waste Management Scheme. Furthermore, since the commencement of the scheme in 2006, some €67.5m has been allocated to farmers throughout the county under the scheme.

"The Farm Waste Management Scheme grant aid, which is entirely funded from the exchequer, is the most extensive on-farm investment initiative in the history of the state.

"It has been crucial in allowing farmers in Cavan, and across the county, to meet the requirements under the Nitrates Directive and has allowed for far more environmentally sustainable modes of farming. Indeed, it has enabled farmers to provide modern on-farm facilities," Minister Smith said.

He also said that once the final payments have been made next year, some €1.2 billion will have been allocated since the inception of the scheme in 2006, and to date, 90% of that grant aid has been paid.

Russia re-opens to Irish pigmeat

The Russian market re-opened to Irish pigmeat yesterday (Tuesday) according to the Minister for Agriculture. Brendan Smith said the Russian Federation informed Irish authorities that its market will reopen to Irish pork and pork products from February 1 - it closed at the dioxin incident in December 2008.

Minister Smith said the resumption of the trade was the result of intensive work by his department, Bord Bia and the Irish embassy in Moscow, and it represented a recognition by the Russian Federation of the integrity of our food safety controls.

The Russian pigmeat market is important to Ireland and was valued at €12m in 2007, and it has considerable potential to grow.

"The maintenance of full access to markets worldwide is a priority for my department and, in conjunction with Bord Bia, a particular effort has been made to ensure normalisation of trading," said the minister.

"The manner in which the Irish and Russian Federation authorities have engaged over the last year has greatly assisted in this regard.

"My intention as always is to ensure access to as many international markets as possible for all Irish meats and meat products."

Suckler Welfare Scheme

Minister Smith confirmed that his department commenced payments under the 2009 Suckler Welfare Scheme on Monday. Payments of €40 per cow will continue on a rolling basis in respect of the 2009 born calves, as additional animals become eligible.

"These payments will be worth some €30m in respect of 2009 born calves for the 53,000 applicants in the scheme and payments will continue into 2010," said the minister, who encouraged applicants to continue to complete and return their forms as quickly as possible, and certainly within 12 months of the birth of the animals, and for those making their returns on-line to do so also.

He added: "The sooner farmers complete these important returns the sooner these cases can be processed."

Minister Smith went on to say that the department will issue letters in the near future to farmers where there are queries. He urged farmers to reply quickly to any correspondence in relation to Suckler Welfare Scheme and said his Department would be making every effort to clear these outstanding cases.

Finally, the minister reminded farmers seeking clarification regarding the query letters to ring lo-call 1890-252707 with any questions.