No rescue from dairy fines
It seems that every new agri-conference brings with it some fresh myth about how superlevy fines will be miraculously avoided — secret EU plans for a soft landing; extra quota sliding in over the next few years; a big enough price per litre to justify going over quota (an idea which defies fundamental supply and demand economics); and, best of all, a U-turn by France and Germany on their milk quota regulatory hardline.
All wishful thinking. All baseless rumours. But yet another fairytale was evident in some chat behind the scenes at last Friday’s launch of the Irish Dairy Board and Teagasc’s new Dairy Innovation Centre in Fermoy, Co Cork. The rumour: “The EU will roll out a ‘European quota’, with the 7% of the EU27’s unused quota from 2010 being shared out by those that need it most — the Irish and the Dutch.”
