Tag: supply management

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The voluntary milk supply reduction measure in the July 2016 farm aid package

Last week the Commission proposed at the July AGRIFISH Council meeting a further aid package for farmers worth €500 million of EU money (and up to €850 million if Member States take up the opportunity to add national financing). This brings the total additional EU financing to support farmers since 2014 to €1.5 billion. The money for the latest package comes from unspent funds in the CAP budget and does not involve making use of the crisis reserve. In his address to COMAGRI outlining the package the following day Commissioner Hogan thanked President Juncker and the budget Commissioner Vice-President Georgieva for their support in making the package possible.

The July 2016 support package

The package contains three main elements:

  • A EU-wide scheme to incentivise a reduction in milk production (€150 million)
  • Conditional adjustment aid to be defined and implemented at Member State level out of a menu proposed by the Commission (€350 million that Member States will be allowed to match with national funds, thus potentially doubling the level of support being provided to farmers)
  • A range of technical measures to provide flexibility (e.g.
… Read the rest
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Supply management in milk policy

Over on the ARC2020 website, they are having a debate on the #MilkCrisis to which I was asked to contribute. Below is my contribution to that debate.

“The weighted average milk price for the EU-28 in May was 26.6 c/litre, a price last seen during the last trough in the price cycle in 2009 when the milk price bottomed out at 24.39 c/litre. The reasons for the current downturn are well known.

Global dairy product prices reached record levels in 2014. EU milk prices reached a record high of 40.2 c/litre in the winter of 2013/2014, averaging 37.3 c/litre over the 12 months in 2014. Milk supplies around the world responded to these high prices in the expectation of an inexhaustible demand for dairy products from China.

Increased supplies were facilitated in the EU by the removal of quotas in April 2015 although expansion had begun long before. EU production increased by more between the years ending April 2014/2015 when quotas were in place than it has done between the years ending April 2015/2016 after quotas were removed.… Read the rest

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Council supports voluntary milk reduction scheme

Yesterday, the Agriculture Council agreed on a package of 13 measures to bring relief to agricultural markets in difficulty. Most attention has focused on the Commission’s willingness to invoke Article 222 of the CMO Regulation to permit producer organisations and recognised interbranch organisations in the dairy sector to introduce voluntary measures to reduce milk supplies, financed by member state funds. This attention is due more to the unusual nature of the measure rather than an assessment of its likely effectiveness.

The measure was put forward by Commissioner Hogan in his address to the Council. The agreement is summarised here in the Presidency Council conclusions and here in this DG AGRI press release following the meeting.

The legal basis

The legal basis for the measure will be Article 222 of the CMO Regulation which refers to agreements and decisions during periods of severe imbalance in markets. It permits the Commission to derogate from the normal competition rules which prevent producers from cooperating to influence supply and market prices under certain conditions.… Read the rest