June 16, 2020

USDA issues Federal Register notice on crisis assistance programme

The USDA issued a Federal Register notice, clarifying provisions in the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP), which provided direct payments to farmers hit by the COVID-19 crisis, National Hog Farmer reported.

Among the changes, USDA clarified CFAP payment calculations for livestock, including the calculations based on unpriced livestock sales from January 15 to April 15, and those based on livestock inventory owned between April 16 and May 14.

Under the change, the swine provisions now read as: "Payments for hogs and pigs will be equal to the sum of the results of the following two calculations: (1) Unpriced hogs and pigs sold between January 15 and April 15, multiplied by the CARES Act payment rate in paragraph (h) of this section; and (2) Hog and pig inventory owned between April 16 and May 14, multiplied by the CCC payment rate in paragraph (h) of this section." The Federal Register notice may be accessed here: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/06/12/2020-12528/coronavirus-food-assistance-program-correction.

CFAP, which  was issued last month, includes US$3 billion in planned agricultural product purchases and US$1.6 billion in direct payments to hog farmers. NPPC continues to advocate for solutions to sustain pork producers through a crisis that, without additional government intervention, will likely lead to consolidation and contraction in a highly competitive farm sector.