Cheese to be the ‘locomotive’ of EU’s dairy performance after 2015
She also welcomed a commitment issued by the European Commission to address dairy farmers’ concerns over price volatility.
“I welcome the commitment of the commissioner to address the need for up-to-date market information and analysis, which will be used to anticipate market problems and allow for timely and effective intervention to tackle problems,” she said.
“An expert study into the future of the dairy sector by Ernst & Young suggested that there will be no major shocks in the milk sector post 2015. The expectation is that cheese will be ‘the locomotive’ of EU dairy performance as currently 45% of milk goes to cheese production.
“However, the conference also heard that milk price volatility has intensified since 2007 and this trend looks set to continue, giving rise to the need for fine-tuning of market support measures.”
She suggested one useful volatility control measure could be fixed price contracts for dairy products which can provide certainty to producers and processors for a given supply volume.
Ms McGuinness is to give a keynote speech when she opens the National Dairy Conference in Millstreet, Co Cork, on Oct 19.
