Fergus Ewing will meet with the industry for the first time on Wednesday as he seeks to address the CAP funding fiasco which has starved Scotland’s rural economy of hundreds of millions of pounds.
Last week, Audit Scotland released a damning report into the Scottish Government’s role in the failure to deliver vital payments to farmers.
Not only were thousands left out of pocket, but continued lack of payment could trigger a fine of up to £125 million from the EU, while doubts remain over the SNP’s ability to fix the system in time for next year.
Scottish Conservative shadow rural affairs secretary Peter Chapman said the meeting gave the National Farmers’ Union Scotland a chance to present Mr Ewing with a set of demands to help turn around the fortunes of rural Scotland.
It is thought around a quarter of farmers are still to receive any kind of payment, despite being told to start expecting cash in December last year.
The Scottish Government was forced to create an emergency fund to help deal with the problem, while Richard Lochhead - the rural affairs secretary on whose watch it happened - resigned last week.
Scottish Conservative shadow rural affairs secretary Peter Chapman said:
“Fergus Ewing has to hit the ground running with his new brief.
“He needs to get out there into rural communities and meet the farmers to find out just how tough it really is.
“Not only does he have to make sure these CAP payments arrive as soon as possible for the sake of the farmers and the taxpayer who’ll have to foot the £125 million worth of fines.
“But he needs to provide assurances that this fiasco will not be repeated next year too.
“These CAP payments are vital to rural communities, which in turn are crucial for Scotland’s economy as a whole.
“The SNP has let down farmers badly over the past year – this meeting should be the first step in repairing that damage.”