THE Ulster Farmers' Union has been watching exchange rate trends closely and is optimistic that this year's Single Farm Payment will once again get a significant boost as the Euro has surged in value against sterling.
Following a difficult year with a wet summer and poor farm gate prices in some of our main commodities, this will be a welcome boost to the farming industry.
The Single Farm Payment is set in Euro, but for most farmers is then converted in to Sterli
ng before being issued.
The payment is based on the Euro/Sterling exchange rate in the European Central Bank on 30 September.
UFU President Graham Furey said: "The recent surge in the strength of the Euro is a welcome boost to farmers. In 2007 each Euro of Single Farm Payment was worth 69 pence to the farmer. In 2008 it was worth approximately 79 pence to the farmer.
"This year the Euro has surged still further and has reached 90 pence in recent days. Accordingly farmers should see their Single Farm Payment rise and this will to some extent help farmers cope with rising production costs and ongoing weather difficulties."
The UFU still holds the view that the current system of using a single date is flawed because it leaves farmers more exposed to the daily fluctuations in the money markets; the good news is that this year's exchange rate seems set to work in farmer's favour.
Never the less we would prefer to see the average exchange rate for an entire month used to establish the figure, a point that we have repeatedly raised in Brussels.
