Farmers in NI will receive advanced CAP payments worth 70% of claims from mid-October, DAERA has confirmed.

An application for the level of advanced payments to increase from 50% to 70% was sent to the European Commission last month and was approved earlier this week.

In a statement, DAERA said that the application was based on the reduction in farm incomes being experienced this year, particularly on cattle and sheep farms.

The first advanced payments will be issued to farmers with fully verified claims from 16 October 2019. Balance payments worth 30% of claims, or full payments for farmers who were not eligible for an advance payment will be issued from 2 December 2019.

This will be the fourth year in a row that DAERA has been able to issue 70% advanced payments from mid-October.

Meanwhile, ongoing political uncertainty at Westminster has left a volatile outlook for financial markets. It is a crucial period for farmers, with CAP payments converted from euro to sterling based on the average exchange rate during September.

A report published by the Department for the Economy (DfE) on Monday pointed out that every 1p change in the value of sterling against the euro changes the total amount paid to NI farms by £3.2m. Last year, payments were converted at a rate of €1=0.89p. Earlier this week, sterling was trading at €1=0.91p, but had recovered to €1=0.90p by Wednesday afternoon.