‘Dramatic and bold move needed to halt decline in dairy markets’
It said the current 20c per litre intervention price should rise to 26c per litre to counter recent developments.
Speaking ahead of a meeting with the European Commission in Brussels, ICOS dairy executive, TJ Flanagan, said that Fonterra (a New Zealand multinational dairy co-operative) auction prices had almost halved since the spring. While he welcomed recent moves to introduce storage aid for butter, skimmed milk powder and some cheeses, he said the Commission’s failure to consider targeted export refunds was disappointing.
He called on the Commission to change its mind on export refunds and to instigate the process of increasing intervention prices from their current level, equivalent to 20c per litre, back up to the level they were at a decade ago — around 26c.
Milk production costs have skyrocketed in the last 10 years and the present 20c support level is plainly not adequate, he said.
Mr Flanagan further stated that the EU should fund these measures from outside the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
The difficulties caused by the Russian embargo on food imports from the EU are clearly geopolitical and are not agri-related.
“Overall decisive action is now required by the European Commission on the intervention price,” he said. Meanwhile, the Commission said it intended to provide an additional €30m of EU funding for CAP promotion programmes starting in 2015, on top of the €60m foreseen annually in the budget.
Aimed at alleviating the impact of the Russian measures against certain EU agricultural products, it said this additional effort would start with the promotion programmes that need to be submitted by the end of September.
