Irish Regions Office Website

January 20, 2009

Extra support for dairy farmers

The European Commission is set to propose to national governments and the European Parliament. that the EU channel EUR1.5 billion that remains unspent in the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) towards dairy farmers, who are currently being affected by exceptionally low milk prices close to, or even below, intervention levels. Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel told EU agricultural ministers on 19 January that she believes the state of the market could force businesses, particularly farmers in marginal and mountainous areas, into liquidation.
Export refunds - a price support measure halted in June 2007 for milk, butter and cheese - have recently been reintroduced as short-term measures to support the dairy sector. The Commission also reintroduced private storage for butter with effect from 1 January. Meanwhile milk quotas will increase next season under the CAP 'health check' reform. This reform has also identified a series of "new challenges" in response to which part of the mooted EUR1.5 billion would also be spent in the form of rural development projects.

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/09/57&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

Posted by iroronan at January 20, 2009 10:43 AM