SNP's Lochhead to press exec on Milk Subsidy Scheme

Commenting on a report that one farmer who is due to get more than £1million in dairy compensation payments because of a loophole in a subsidy regime - 3% of the total funding available – the SNP Shadow Rural Affairs Minister, Richard Lochhead said:

"This loophole has allowed at least one individual to benefit enormously for producing invisible milk due to the madcap basis on which payments are calculated.

"At a time when industry leaders are repeatedly warning us all that the dairy sector is staring over the edge of a cliff, this is a staggering revelation.

"Many dairy farmers in my constituency and elsewhere struggling to survive and whom have received tiny payments in comparison will be shocked.

"If EU paymasters think this system can be justified and sustained they are wrong. If Scotland is to remain a milk producing nation then dairy support must be linked to current levels of milk production otherwise many dairy farmers will become even more disillusioned.

"I will be tabling parliamentary questions seeking the Rural Development Minister Ross Finnie's intervention."