A LEADING rural expert has seen a significant increase in the number of farmers opting for their single farm payments to be paid in euros.

Today is the deadline for the submission of 2010 SFP applications and David Coulson, founding partner of Crook and Bishop Auckland-based Broadley and Coulson, has been inundated with euro-related SFP enquiries.

Many farmers were looking to take advantage of the pound’s current weakness against the euro and boost the value of their next SFP payments.

At the time the euro was worth around 92p, which meant farmers could guarantee a subsidy cheque worth about 13pc more than their 2008 payment.

The exchange rate to convert SFPs into sterling, as fixed by the European Central Bank on September 30 each year, was 79p/euro in 2008 and 67p/euro in 2007, giving today’s claimants a significant gain over the last two years.

Mr Coulson, policy spokesman for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in the North- East, said: “The overw h e l m i n g majority of single farm payments are made in sterling, but farmers can elect to be paid in euros and we’ve seen many more thinking seriously about how they can protect the value of their single farm payments – locking in some of the potential value by choosing to be paid in euros.”

Although there was a risk that sterling could weaken further by September or later in the year when the SFP payment is received, he believed those who had opted to be paid in euros would still, at the very least, be 13p in the pound better off than last year.

Mr Coulson said: “Every farmer knows that exchange rates, particularly those between the euro and sterling, are a key factor in determining farm profitability.

“Only around 600 of the estimated 106,000 SFP claims last year asked for euro payment, but I expect this will be much higher this year based on my own experiences here in the North-East alone.”