Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon has confirmed that the Organic Farming Scheme (OFS) will not take on new farmers this year.

In September, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine said that the budget for the scheme under the 2023-2027 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has been fully allocated through paying current participants.

Sine 2023, the number of farmers in the Organic Farming Scheme grew from 2,090 to 5,573, an increase of some 266%.

New entrants to the OFS are given a five-year scheme contract, with the first two years seeing higher per-hectare payment levels to support the initial conversion to organic farming.

As well as that, participation payments are paid to OFS participants to cover administration costs.

The funding allocated to the scheme under the CAP is fully accounted for by these payments to the current members.

Speaking to Agriland this week, Minister Heydon confirmed the current scheme under this CAP period will not reopen to new members.

The minister said: "What I want to do is continuously support our farmers who are in transition to organics and those who are in organics and maintaining them doing so."

He said he secured funding to continue paying farmers currently in the Organic Farming Scheme in line with the scheme terms and conditions.

The minister also said there will be additional resources put towards reopening the Organic Processing Investment Grant (OPIG).

Minister Heydon said this would help address "leakage" in the sector, i.e. where organic produce ends up in the conventional supply chain, undermining any premium price that might be available to organic farmers.

"What I’ve heard very clearly from people in the organic sector here is the challenges around leakage," he said.

"There’s a little bit of 'chicken and egg' in terms of enough produce being produced to get to markets we need to get to... We have some gaps on the processing side that I want to fill and that’s my priority for 2027," the minister added.

In a statement after this week's Budget 2027 announcement, Minister Heydon said: "I am fully committed to the development and growth of the organic sector in Ireland in line with our targets, and funding will continue next year to facilitate financial support to these farmers under the Organic Farming Scheme.

The minister said that "work is ongoing" to plan for the next Organic Farming Scheme under the next CAP.

He added that he will be "reopening the organic processing scheme early next year to assist the sector in developing market opportunities for organic production".