New rules to be introduced for Milk Production Partnerships
His new rules for Milk Production Partnerships (MPPs) facilitate participation of non-dairy farmers and farm managers. They also remove barriers such as age and some off-farm income limits, and limits on the distance between holdings and the relative sizes of farms. The Minister is also addressing reasonable access to quota — through the Milk Quota Trading Scheme — in order to further open up MPPs to new participants. An announcement is expected shortly on this issue.
Mr Smith said partnerships provide the means for farmers to continue in milk production, and are good for the dairy industry because they can help to maximise the number of active producers.
