Ministry, farmers agree on compensation for culled foot and mouth animals

The agriculture ministry and farmers’ unions on Thursday reached an agreement regarding the amount of compensation to be paid to farmers whose livestock are culled as a result of the ongoing outbreak of foot and mouth disease.

The government will now pay farmers between €43 and €178 per regular sheep and goat and between €47 and €420 per sheep and goat which is deemed to be of “high genetic value”.

Additionally, the government will now pay farmers between €150 and €1,500 per regular cow culled, with this figure rising to up to €2,500 for exceptional cattle.

The figures were announced following a meeting of the ad hoc committee formed by the government with the aim of stemming the disease’s spread, with Agriculture Minister Maria Panayiotou saying after the meeting that “beyond the veterinary dimension, we must not forget that this crisis affects people in the livestock industry first and foremost”.

“It is tragic to lose in an instant the livestock which constitutes the work of a lifetime,” she said, before adding that as such, the government is now offering “substantial support for livestock farmers”.

She added that she will now put forward a new proposal to cabinet in the coming days for the government to give the already mandated advance payment to all impacted farmers, regardless of the number of animals on their farms, so as to be able to “expedite payments”.

Additionally, she said that the agreement provides for higher payouts than those provided for by the European Union’s reference prices, saying that “European reference prices are much lower” and that “the Republic of Cyprus consciously chooses to support livestock farmers with compensation up to 200 per cent higher than European levels”.

The prices to which she was referring were the European Commission’s maximum values on which it will agree to co-finance compensation for culled animals, which sit at €1,000 per cow and €140 per sheep.

In such cases, the commission pays 30 per cent of the compensation for the animal, though it remains unclear whether the commission will continue to do this if a member state then offers to pay more than those maximum figures.

An agriculture ministry spokesperson told the Cyprus Mail that the government’s position is that the commission will pay up to €300 per cow and up to €42 per sheep – 30 per cent of its own ceilings. The Cyprus Mail has contacted the European Commission for clarification.

Panayiotou also said that payments will begin next week, and that livestock farmers who intend to return to the profession after having their animals culled “will receive income loss support for at least 12 months, until their units fully return to production”.

“This will take into account labour, fixed costs, social insurance, financial obligations, and so on, so that it is fair and based on the real needs of the livestock farmers,” she said.

She added that farmers who farm animals of “high genetic value” will be subject to a “state support plan” to ensure their future, with this plan set to be based on the committee’s findings.

“Financial support will be determined based on the genetic value, productivity, age, and so on, of the animal, and a maximum value will be set per animal category. In cases where this amount exceeds the amount of compensation that the livestock farmers will have received for the killings, the state will subsidise the difference,” he said.

She later said that “a state official will be appointed for each livestock farmer to support and guide the reconstruction of their unit”, with the government later clarifying that these officials will only be appointed to affected units, thus requiring around 110 officials so far.

The cost of the measures is expected to exceed €35 million.