Brussels, 31/08/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 27 August, the EU agricultural markets committee approved a proposal that will allow farmers to request private storage aid for butter and skimmed milk powder until the end of February 2016.
European Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan had already announced this move in July in view of the difficult situation facing EU milk and dairy producers largely as a result of the ban by Russia on imports of agrifood products from the EU.
At the same time, the Commission will adopt a delegated act that will allow the public intervention period for these products to be extended - also to the end of February next year. These two measures (public intervention and private storage for butter and skimmed milk powder) were due to expire at the end of September 2015.
As a result of the recent fall in dairy products in most member states, 8,859 tonnes of skimmed milk powder have been sold by means of intervention over the last few weeks (in Belgium, Germany, Lithuania, Poland and United Kingdom). In addition, 138,510 tonnes of butter and 43,637 tonnes of skimmed milk powder have been taken into private storage, through the scheme introduced in September 2014 following the introduction of the Russian import ban.
Only a few days before the extraordinary meeting of the Agriculture Council to discuss the crises in farming (above all, in the milk and pigmeat sectors) in Brussels on 7 September, Hogan acknowledged during a press conference on Wednesday 26 August that the existence of short-term challenges meant that swift responses were needed, particularly in the member states most severely affected, including the Baltic States and the Central and Southern European countries (see EUROPE 11375). He remained tight-lipped, however, as to the measures that might be proposed or taken at the Council, given the budget restrictions and the need not to oppose the common agricultural policy's market-based approach. (Lionel Changeur)