The U.K. National Farmers' Union (NFU) has slated a British government decision not to take up a financial support package on offer to all EU countries as a prop up for agriculture sectors badly affected by the Russian embargo on fresh produce.

Union officials are 'dismayed' and 'bitterly disappointed' to learn that British ministers have decided not to take advantage of the aid package for fruit and vegetable producers.

The NFU has received a letter from the government confirming it is against destroying edible U.K. produce, saying it would be a misuse of public money.

However, the NFU had called on the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to implement the scheme due to the 'distortion of markets on the back of the Russian trade ban', according to a union statement.

NFU chief horticulture and potatoes adviser Chris Hartfield says the EU aid package would have been a great help to some farmers and minimized some loses in the British agriculture sector.

"The reason given for not implementing the scheme in the UK is totally flawed. The amount of aid on offer was not sufficient to encourage growers to destroy produce that they would have otherwise sold," he said.

"The simple fact is that the markets for certain sectors have collapsed due to the surplus product in the EU.

"Some UK growers, like others in the EU, have had no choice but to destroy produce because there is no longer a buyer and a market for it."

The first round of EU support measures were announced in August when the European Commission proclaimed a €125 million (US$159 million) compensation pot for sectors adversely affected by the Russian ban.

It quickly became oversubscribed and descended into controversy amid claims of fraud and was replaced with another package offering €165 million (US$209 million) worth of funds to member states that directly exported to Russia.

There was also an additional fund for those who had suffered indirectly, for instance because of market saturation.

Compared against many other EU countries, the U.K. does not heavily rely on exports to Russia, but the compensation measures allow all member states to claim for produce of up to 3,000 metric tons (MT) lost as an indirect impact of the trade ban.

NFU horticulture and potatoes board chairman Guy Poskitt says that by deciding not to take up the allocation, ministers have denied British producers the chance to receive aid that is otherwise being 'snapped up' by European competitors.

"How can we compete against imports when we are consistently facing an uneven playing field," he says in a statement.

The NFU has written to the government calling for a review.

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