Brussels, 29/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - According to provisional figures published by the European Commission on Friday 29 October, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Cyprus were the only member states which exceeded their milk quotas in the 2009/2010 quota year, triggering superlevy fines for a total of €19 million. This compares with the €99m triggered last year and €340m the previous year.
Following the increase in quotas agreed under the 2008 common agricultural policy (CAP) health check, Italian production finished within quota for the first time, as global EU production finished some 7% below global quota volumes, compared with the 4.2% margin in the 2008/09 quota year (April-March).
The Netherlands, Denmark, and Cyprus accounted for an overrun of 70,000 tonnes of their national quotas. The Netherlands and Denmark exceeded their “deliveries” quota by 0.4%, and Cyprus by 0.3%, triggering fines of €13.03 million, €5.68 million and €125 000 respectively. The Netherlands also overran its direct sales quota by some 2,268 tonnes, resulting in a further levy on direct sales of €631,000. All 24 other member states were within their quotas. Although decisions in 2008 (quota increase and changes in the fat correction system) increased the scope for production considerably in 2009/2010, an increase in deliveries was only registered in 10 member states (Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Luxemburg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria and Finland). In fact, overall deliveries were down 0.6%, reflecting the difficult market situation, with a decrease of more than 2% in 11 Member States (Czech Republic, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, France, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Sweden). After fat correction, deliveries in 15 member states (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden and United Kingdom) were at least 10% below their national quota. (L.C./transl.rt)