Coveney: changes provide opportunities and risks

Dramatic changes are in prospect in EU policy with the end of milk quotas and reduced emphasis on price supports, Minister Coveney told CIT’s seminar on milk price volatility on Monday.

The minister stressed that this would provide a huge opportunity for Irish dairying but also some risks. He noted that, while Ireland looked forward to quota abolition, many other member states see protectionism as a good thing and would like to maintain some level of price support, in part as a protection against the price volatility of recent years, notably this year.

These countries had no ambition to grow supply and our projected rapid supply growth as a threat to price stability and dairy farm incomes in their countries. They need to be convinced that a rapid growth in our volume and market share would not impact heavily on overall EU supply or prices.

Ireland needs to emphasise the growing market demand outside the EU and our capacity to service it, illustrated by the contract to supply €40m worth of cheese to Algeria.