Brussels, 15/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - It is expected to be in June that the European Commission will publish its report on the situation on the milk and dairy products market and implementation of the “milk package” that came into effect in 2012.
A questionnaire has already been sent to the member states to which they had to respond by 15 January. In September 2015, at the presentation of the €500 million action plan to help the livestock sector withstand the crisis, the Commission pledged to bring forward the date of publication of the report to 2016 rather than 2018 as originally intended.
In light of this work, the Commission could open discussions on improving the functioning of the market. Among the possible avenues to be considered are potential incentives (including financial incentives by means of rural development) to encourage farmers to conclude joint production agreements. This is something that came out of the first report on the milk package published in 2014. Agreements of this kind allow producers to set production capacities and volumes.
After a slight improvement welcomed by the Commission, prices on the European market have again dipped. Powdered milk prices have fallen below the intervention threshold. Some member states (Belgium, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands and Poland) have, since mid-December, begun rebuilding public stocks. In all, since July 2015, 40,280 tonnes of powdered milk have been stored.
At a press briefing on the sidelines of Green Week in Berlin, the European Milk Board (EMB) again criticised European Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan and the German minister of agriculture. EMB Vice-President Sieta van Keimpema said: “Whereas all over Europe dairy farmers are struggling with prices often under 30 cents, Hogan says the milk market has stabilised and is not in a crisis”. “If data are reinterpreted in such a way just to further justify his own policy, in my view that is mismanagement”, she went on. “It is because of this attitude of refusal that his position as EU Commissioner is no longer tenable”, is how Romuald Schaber, president of the EMB. The number of dairy farms in the EU has almost halved since 2007, according to the EMB. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)