Further £243,000 in subsidy for farmers

After giving them £480,000 over the summer of 2022, a further £243,000 will be provided over the next three months.

All of the funding comes from the States’ Budget Reserve.

This follows continued pressures on the industry due to the war in Ukraine and its impact on the costs of fertiliser and feed.

While these costs are stabilising, they are still much higher than normal with some fertiliser costing almost twice what it did before the war.

Guernsey Farmers’ Association president Michael Bray welcomed news of the additional support.

‘It’s all going to help,’ he said.

Local farmers had both island inflation to contend with as well as that caused by the war in Ukraine, and the States’ contribution covered the latter.

‘It’s kind of a consumer subsidy in a way, to keep the market price stable,’ he said.

The situation farmers are in also arose out of a review of the dairy industry in 2013, which saw their subsidy, as custodians of the environment, cut in half, with more emphasis placed on milk prices.

But with changing consumer tastes, that ‘wound’ had been opened up by the Ukraine crisis.

Before the original funding was put in place some of the island’s 12 farms were said to be on the brink of collapse.

‘Everybody is still surviving,’ said Mr Bray, ‘but without that funding we would certainly have lost some farms.’

A review of the dairy sector is taking place to understand how its long-term sustainability can be achieved and Mr Bray said farmers were hoping the results would be published at the end of February.

‘All of our accounts are being audited by a third party to ascertain the state of the industry,’ he said.

‘Hopefully it will provide some ideas and solutions as to how we can sustain the industry.’

Environment & Infrastructure president Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez said the emergency funding was only a stop-gap, but it was urgently needed.

‘Dairy farming and our iconic breed have a unique place in Guernsey’s identity, culture and landscape, and in this current financial climate, emergency funding is needed to see our farmers through this period while we carry out a review on the sector’s long-term sustainability,’ she said.

Policy & Resources president Deputy Peter Ferbrache said that it was understood that emergency funding was not a long-term solution.

‘We’re doing this to avoid the disastrous outcome of losing this industry in the very short-term, but we are working with Environment & Infrastructure to have a viable long-term plan in place, and quickly.’