Revised forestry payments suggested

A REVISED farmer premium payment structure for forestry is recommended in a report published yesterday.

The economist Peter Bacon suggests that the farmer premium would be paid for 10 years rather than 20 years at present, with the annual payment level adjusted so that there would be no change in the value of the payments to growers.

At ten years, the study proposes that the State would acquire an option to purchase standing forest plantations and then sell these to institutional investors wishing to balance their long-term investment portfolios.