Decisión nº: 000406

In October 1994 the 1971 Fund Executive Committee considered a claim by a farmer, whose farm had been contaminated by oil, for a contribution to the purchase of machinery to sort, wash and bag potatoes, even though his 1992 crop of potatoes had been harvested and stored before the incident and his 1993 crop from the previously contaminated land was declared fit for human consumption. It was noted that the claimant had stated that prior to the incident he was the sole supplier of potatoes to the only supermarket on Shetland and had also maintained that customer resistance had caused the supermarket to purchase pre-washed and pre-packaged potatoes from the mainland. The Committee rejected the claim on the grounds that it related to the costs of upgrading the operation of the claimant’s farm in order to compete with produce from the mainland and could not therefore be considered as damage caused by contamination.