EU council split on butterfat

There was disappointment for Irish dairy farmers yet again this week in the EU council of agriculture ministers, with states split on a proposal that could have increased Ireland’s milk quota 2%.

Due to diverging views, the Greek presidency left it to the incoming Italian presidency to decide on the dairy market in the final year of the quota system. Ireland sought a butterfat correction that would bring an additional 2% in milk quota this year (which would have been of great benefit to expanding farmers, because the additional 1% in quota last year and the year before as part of the EU’s soft landing policy is no longer available).

The butterfat correction coefficient offers the only flexibility the European Commission has without requiring co-decision by EU states. However, some countries remained opposed to this request, calling instead for rules defined in 2008 for the end of quota regime to be applied strictly, in order to avoid distortion of competition within the EU.