France to stay within milk quota despite 2% leeway

THE French rule that superlevy kicks in immediately for over-quota dairy farmers — whether or not their co-op or the country is over quota — will ensure that France stays within quota, says Catherine Lascurettes, executive secretary of the IFA national dairy and liquid milk committees.

She was commenting on the French agriculture minister’s announcement that milk producers can exceed their 2011/2012 milk quota by up to 2%, without penalty.

She said the French dairy industry is structured to stay within quota (the undershoot was 5% last year), and the minister’s announcement would have been preceded by careful assessment which concluded there is at least 2% leeway without danger of a national superlevy. It followed an announcement last October that French producers up to 170,000 litres (or 37,362 gallons) could exceed their quota by up to 10,000 litres.

Superlevy payments by French farmers go into a fund for young farmers and dairy farm restructuring, unless the country goes over quota, in which event the superlevy fine is paid to the EU.