ICMSA: Milk quota rules should be relaxed for butterfat content

EUROPEAN milk quota regulations should take a more relaxed line on butterfat content in the run-up to the end of the quota era in 2015, according to ICMSA president Jackie Cahill.

The Irish Creamery and Milk Suppliers Association chief yesterday warned that Ireland’s dairy sector will face an increasingly difficult task in attempting to manage its milk output as it builds its dairy herd in anticipation of expansion post-2015. The industry will know by the end of this week whether or not it has avoided a superlevy fine for overproduction in the 12-month period to the end of March 2011.

Mr Cahill said that milk quota restrictions and the management of those restrictions should now be item number one on the agenda for the dairy industry in Ireland. He said the ongoing threat of a superlevy fine would cause major difficulties for large numbers of Irish farmers.

Mr Cahill said: “As the voices giving advice get louder and the prospect of huge fines looms, can I ask where are all the so-called experts who were telling us — as recently as a few months ago — that Ireland would never again have a quota problem? Where are all these experts now?

“If, by the skin of our teeth, we can avoid a large quota liability this year then, most definitely, we will experience even more difficulties matching our supply to our quota over the next four years. As milk quota prices increased — when they should have been going in the opposite direction — official policy in Ireland and the EU is still aiming towards quota abolition, so the alarm bells should surely be ringing very loudly now because our stated policy is directly opposite to the reality.

“Europe is 6% under quota overall and the quota is still restricting production in a number of key producer states, which is why the Farm Council will be reluctant to increase the overall quota.”

Mr Cahill said Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney must grasp two key points: “He must seek relaxation of the butterfat rules which were always exceptionally severe in their application to the Irish situation; and he should signal that in the area of management of the quota over the next four years that a clear and unambiguous priority will be given to existing dairy farmers.”

However, EU Agricultural Commissioner Dacian Ciolos has consistently warned high-producing countries such as Ireland that there is significant resistance to a “soft landing” for the sector when milk quotas are abolished in 2015.

Big players such as France and Germany have been strongly opposed to any further loosening of quota regulations.

Commissioner Ciolos restated this view in a meeting in Brussels with Ireland East MEP Máiréad McGuinness, who warns dairy farmers that despite pressure from several member states the EU Commission is showing no willingness to relax its stance.