The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine has pledged that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is to get every farmer in the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) “paid as soon as possible”.

Speaking to Agriland from Expo 2025 in Osaka Minister Martin Heydon – who is leading an agri-food trade mission to Japan this week – said that there are currently “far less than the 14,500 farmers that were unpaid” in relation to ACRES, when he became minister in January.

But the minister added: “One farmer unpaid is one too many”.