ICMSA calls for EU emergency milk fund to be maintained for next year

THE €300 million emergency milk fund introduced by the European Union to assist struggling dairy farmers should be maintained for 2011, according to the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association.

ICMSA dairy committee chairperson Pat McCormack said 2009 will live long in the memory of dairy farmers as a disastrous year.

It is essential that the policymakers at EU level maintain the maximum number of support measures for dairy farmers that might allay the worst effects of that kind of destructive volatility, he claimed.