The row over payments for UK Producer Organisations (POs) could reach the European Court of Justice, with ongoing attempts to reach a resolution branded as “hopeless” by producers.
One supplier said the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) “would have gone bust if it was a commercial organisation” and that the PO issue was “farcical”.
DEFRA said the EC has admitted the issue may end up in court while the government department was due to issue new guidance on the matter to POs as FPJ went to press.
Speaking at the ADAS/Syngenta vegetable conference in Peterborough this week, Jeremy Cowper, head of the crops hub at DEFRA, said the “experience has not been a happy one, it has been frustrating as administrators day-to-day”, and reminded growers the grants were not a subsidy but conditional on meeting the scheme’s goals.
DEFRA is to invite POs to London on 3 March for a meeting to go through compliance with the scheme which has been beset with difficulties in the UK and other countries due to alleged misinterpretation.
Bedfordshire grower Alistair Findlay launched a broadside on the scheme from the floor in addressing Cowper. “Most of us in the industry are very disappointed by the RPA,” he said. “The current problems are a total shambles and you need to look at the staffing within the RPA.”
Hugh Baker, managing director of Sherwood Produce Ltd (SPL), said the rewards of being deemed a PO were marginally worth remaining in the scheme. SPL has gained an extra £100 an acre due to the grant that has been “very valuable” to the co-operative.
Baker told FPJ: “We have been audited by the EU three times and been recognised but we have had indications we may not be again despite the fact the scheme has not changed. It makes no sense. If the RPA were a commercial organisation they would have gone bust. They are shocking.”
Addressing the packed audience on his first day as NFU head of food and farming, Philip Hudson said original legislation set out in 1996 was part of the problem with POs, adding that confidence in the scheme has been lost.
No comments yet