Convergence goes ahead as originally planned

Trading single farm payment entitlements in 2014 will not impact on the national fund available to Ireland, said Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney this week, and it will not limit the number of entitlements that can be allocated to young farmers and new entrants.

Responding to our article of last week on possible effects of entitlement trading on convergence, Mr Coveney said the convergence model, originally proposed by Ireland, will be implemented in several EU countries, and provides a simple, effective and predictable model to introduce fairer distribution of funds between farmers. Both high value and low value entitlements gradually move towards a national average, as low value entitlements are increased, and high value entitlements are reduced.

He said farmers who move to reduce or increase the value of their entitlements in 2014 to avoid convergence are simply pre- empting the effects of convergence, by moving their entitlement value towards the average.