Chamber and committees

The Fruit and Vegetables Aid Scheme is a legacy Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) EU Scheme. It was introduced in 1997 and until the UK’s Exit from the EU it was funded by the European Commission.

Since October 2020, the Scottish Government has funded producer organisations in the scheme with a Head Office in Scotland. Match-funding is based on a producer organisation’s actual expenditure of pre-approved, eligible items.

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) currently deliver the Fruit and Vegetables Aid Scheme on behalf of Scottish Ministers. A breakdown of money reimbursed to the RPA, based on the Fruit and Vegetables Aid Scheme year (January to December) from 2020 to 2024 is below.

2020: £1,253,200

2021: £2,544,356

2022: £2,483,127

2023: £2,325,718

2024: £1,707,894

Please note that the European Commission part funded 2020 expenditure. Please also note that final 2024 claims are still being processed and therefore the 2024 figure above does not reflect a final figure for 2024 expenditure.

The Fruit and Vegetables Aid Scheme is a legacy Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) EU Scheme. It has been delivered by the Rural Payments Agency on a UK-wide basis since its introduction. There have been a total of four producer organisations (POs), with headquarters in Scotland that have received funding through the scheme since it was introduced; one in Angus, two in Fife and one in the Scottish Borders.

Three of these POs have received funding via the scheme in every year since it was introduced. The remaining PO received funding for expenditure relating to one scheme year. Where possible, the Rural Payments Agency and the Scottish Government work with POs so that applications for operational programmes meet the necessary eligibility criteria as set out in legislation and the National Strategy.

No Scottish vessel has failed to comply with economic link licence conditions. Quota payback is the alternative for compliance.

The Marine Directorate provides vessels’ management groups with the landings data for vessels not meeting the threshold and the calculations for evaluating the quota gifts to be made. This provides transparency to vessel owners and managers.

Accountability is delivered though the annual publication of vessels which have provided quota gifts and the total amount of quota stocks paid back.

The Scottish Government has published this information since the amended economic link licence condition was implemented from 1 January 2023. It can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-economic-link/

No Scottish vessel has failed to comply with the economic link requirements in the last five years.

The quota payback is calculated as 26% of the pound sterling value of the ‘missing’ landings in order to have otherwise met the landings threshold into Scotland (55% of all landings), aggregated across the eight named species.

The pound value of those missing landings is converted back into a tonnage figure, using the average pound per tonne (PPT) value of landings made by Scottish vessels into Scotland. Please see the consultation outcome report for further details: https://consult.gov.scot/marine-scotland/amendment-of-the-economic-link-licence-condition/

Compliance is assessed by the Marine Directorate in the following calendar year.

The first criteria for compliance for a vessel to have landed more than 10 tonnes of the eight named species. A vessel landing less than 10 tonnes total of the eight named species is exempt from the economic link condition.

To meet the landing target element of the economic link condition a minimum of 55% of all landings must be made into Scottish ports.

Vessels which do not meet the landings threshold must make a quota payback in order to meet their obligation.

No Scottish vessel has failed to comply with the economic link licence condition since 2019. Twenty-one different Scottish vessels have complied with the requirements by making a quota payback in the same period.

Non-compliance with the Economic Link licence occurs where a vessel has failed to meet the 55% landings threshold and failed to agree a quota payback.

Vessel owners are provided with the opportunity to query the landings data and the quota payback calculation.

There have been no instances of a vessel seeking to appeal the application of quota pay-back for not meeting the Economic Link compliance criteria since 2019.

The following table shows the share of the eight species landed into Scottish ports as a percentage of the total Scottish landings of each species. It should be noted that landings for 2024 are still management data and are not currently available for publication.