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Common Agricultural Policy (EU's impact on Irish sugar producers…
Common Agricultural Policy
Established in 1962 to help make the EU self sufficient in food after the post-war shortages
Incentives to farmers to grow more food
Grants&subsidies
Guaranteed prices for cereals, milk and other farm produce
Farmers made up 24% of the Irish workforce in 1973,CAP helped to modernise farmyards & machinery
Incentives led to overproduction in the 1980s
Wine-lakes, butter mountains, grain mountains & frozen beef stored across the EU
CAP costing 62% of EU budget; unsustainable
1992, CAP reformed
Subsidies de-coupled/unhooked from production
Quotas placed on milk production, fines imposed if quotas broke
Cereal farmers were paid to withdraw some of their land from production to reduce yields
Direct income payments made to farmers, annual cheque in the post, irrespective of how much they produce. €1.8 billion per year at this time in CAP Payments
EU's impact on Irish sugar producers
Farmers in EU who produced sugar beet enjoyed guaranteed prices
Developing countries, e.g Brazil, protested impossible to sell their sugar to EU as EU subsidies were not in line with world trade rules
The World Trade Organisation put pressure on EU to stop susidising sugar production
In 2006, the EU cut its guaranteed price for sugar by 36% > EU producers cut output by 6 million tonnes
Sugar industry ended in RoI after 80 years of production
3,700 farmers stopped producing sugar beet and switched to other crops e.g cereals
Farmers, workers and companies compensated by the EU
Rural Environmental Protection Scheme
CAP sees farmers as guardians of the countryside & protectors of the rural environment
Farmers in REPS received financial incentives to protect flora&fauna of farm
Hedges replanted
Native trees introduced
Stone walls maintained
REPS was replaced by GLAS (green, low carbon agri environment scheme) in 2014 & provides a maximum payment of €5,000 for up to 50,000 farmers
Highlights the benefits farmers provide to society as a whole on issues such as climate change, biodiversity life & soil quality
30% of Direct Payment paid per hectare linked to environmentally friendly farming practices
Remaining 70%, Basic Payment Scheme applies
Farmers can retire on a pension at 55 and hand over the farm to son/daughter
In the period up to 2020, the CAP will invest €10.7 billion in Ireland's farming sector&rural areas
In 2014, over 120,000 farms received €1.2 billion in Direct Payments
Direct Payments depend on farm size
Small farms receive as little as €5,000
Largest farms receive a maximum of €150,000