Coveney: Better risk management tools needed after quotas abolished

Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney said farmers would need additional risk management tools in place before EU milk quotas are lifted in 2015, including the creation of a futures market.

“There should be a market that is available (to hedge risk when quotas are lifted),” he told delegates at the Oxford Farming Conference.

The EU is scheduled to abolish milk quotas in April 2015 and Ireland, a low-cost producer, has already begun to expand.