Coveney will fight milk-quota backtracking
“Some safety-net proposals will be made, and I need to ensure that those safety nets do not prevent us from achieving the growth we want to deliver,” said the minister, referring to the Sept 24 conference on the future of the EU milk package after 2015. The conference is organised by the European Commission.
“Ireland has spent an absolute fortune in time and money preparing for the move away from a quota system. The growth potential under the Food Harvest 2020 targets is a 50% increase in the volume of milk produced over five years. Co-ops, companies, and farmers are spending significant money to facilitate that growth. We need to ensure it happens, and we will fight hard for it in the autumn.” said the minister.
“Some countries are very concerned. These are countries which do not produce milk as competitively as Ireland and may have an average herd size of three or four cows. Some central and eastern European countries are in that position. They are concerned that they cannot compete, on milk prices, against Ireland or Denmark.”
The minister said this was a red-line issue in the June political agreement on CAP reform. “The Irish presidency was in receipt of proposals for some kinds of supply-control measures post-milk quota. I said that if that was in the CAP reform, I could not, and would not, support it.”
Proposals to restrict milk output when quotas are scrapped were introduced into the CAP reform by French MEP, Michel Dantin.
France is likely be in the forefront of a campaign in September for safety-net measures. Profitability for milk producers is low in France, and the farm-gate price often does not cover production cost.
But continental farmers’ fighting spirit is weakening, because of the slight rise in prices, says the European Milk Board, which represents 100,000 farmers in 14 European countries.
IFA President John Bryan said there can be no movement away from the EU decision to end milk quotas, but Irish farmers need help to manage income variability — such as tax-related options, more fixed price milk contracts, and better banking solutions.
