Storage aid for butter to begin in December

PRIVATE storage aid for butter will be introduced two months earlier than usual by the European Commission, but intervention buying-in will remain closed until March.

Butter is quoted below or close to the intervention level in a number of member states.

The commission said it will bring forward storage aid because buyers are reluctant to enter into major contracts in a falling market, and the general economic situation and financing problems had added to the fragility of the market.