Former commercial farmers’ representatives, Mr Harry Orphanides said before the former commercial farmers and Government came to an agreement over the compensation figure, there were several discussions which led to a referendum where the majority voted in support of the Government’s offer.

“The $US3,5 billion was an offer the Government put on the table. The global position agreed to between ourselves and Government value agents was $US5,2 billion.

“At first we did not agree on the figure as they had excluded biological assets. We later went into the negotiation period of the compensation and at the end of the day the Government put on the table a figure of US$3,5 billion and we took it to our members. Some 3 000 farmers voted in the referendum and about 94 percent accepted. We have a majority of farmers accepting that proposal,” he said.

Speaking about the 6 percent that voted against the compensation deal, Mr Orphanides said they will also benefit from the programme.

“As long as they are on the database, they still have the opportunity of partaking in the compensation. Government is obliged to pay for the assets and not the land. We have no say on that matter, it’s a constitutional issue and we have to abide by that,” he said.