Farmers told to stick to quota

EUROPE will not be offering a soft landing for superlevy-bound Irish farmers, EU Commissioner for Agriculture Dacian Ciolos confirmed at yesterday’s IFA annual general meeting in Dublin.

Dairy farmer Teddy Cashman asked Mr Ciolos if the EU authorities might yet consider gradually adjusting the current regime of penalties. Other farm spokespeople had made similar requests at an earlier briefing in Government Buildings.

Mr Ciolos said: “It is not up to the Agriculture Commission to make this decision. We have already been given our decision on this subject from the Council of Europe.

“They have not asked us to reopen or renegotiate this. I have not reintroduced this measure in the new proposal. The Council has 27 members who make these decisions collectively.”

Immediately prior to Mr Ciolos’s visit to Dublin, Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney had already warned Irish farmers of the growing likelihood of fines being imposed when the current quota year ends on March 31.

Mr Coveney said that milk supplies to the end of December 2011, taking into account the relevant butterfat adjustment, were estimated at 0.08% under quota. This compares to an end of November position of 0.41% over quota.

Mr Coveney warned milk producers about the “very real threat of a milk superlevy at the end of the 2011/2012 milk quota year, if milk production patterns were to mirror those in the final three months of last year”.

While the corresponding figure for this time last year was 1.87% under quota, an increase in production of 1.5% over quota over the final three months left year end production just 0.37% under the quota.

Mr Coveney acknowledged the frustrations of farmers wishing to expand their enterprises in preparation for the period post- 2015 but said that it was clear at this point that a quota system would continue to operate until 2015.