Irish farmers ‘very close’ to getting EU superlevy over milk quota

Farmers face an anxious wait until the third week in April for the earliest estimate on Ireland’s 2011/2012 milk quota figures.

A Department of Agriculture spokesperson said that Ireland’s authorities were not optimistic about avoiding a superlevy this year, and described the result as being “very close” to an EU fine scenario. The 2011/2012 quota year ended last Saturday.

The country was 0.07% under milk quota figure at the end of February, but all farming sources suggest this performance would not have been enough to offset the high levels of output normal in March.

Industry estimates of the likely penalty facing dairy farmers vary from €10m up to around €24m, depending on farmers’ efforts to “hold back” milk output during March.

Most co-ops advised suppliers to try to curtail output during last month, but the Department of Agriculture said yesterday that it cannot issue its initial estimates for at least another fortnight.