Quotas stopped farmers from bridging the gap

THE EU could have processed an additional 5.5m tonnes of milk per year since 2003, if quotas hadn’t restricted output.

That was one of the findings of the EU market outlook report which led to recent proposals to boost milk quotas by 2% next April. It was estimated that, up to 2014, an extra 8m tonnes of milk will be needed to meet EU demand, primarily for cheese production.

The outlook for the world market is also positive, resulting in growing export demand for EU dairy foods.