EU urged to use superlevy to ease dairy crisis

The European Commission should use this year’s milk quota superlevy fines to fund crisis intervention measures to ease the looming crisis in the dairy sector, a leading academic has advised.

Cork Institute of Technology maths lecturer Donal O’Connor said dairy farmers are facing into an extended period of low global milk prices, with high superlevy fines to pay for over-production during the final 12 months of the quota era.

Dr O’Connor said the fallout from quota abolition on March 31 will require EU interventions in the short term and an industry-wide forum on price volatility to help dairy farmers survive the challenges they face.EU dairy policy also involves safety net dairy product price supports involving intervention buying, export refunds and private storage aid.