The organisations representing farmers and agri-cooperatives in the EU, Copa-Cogeca, published a press release on Friday 26 August welcoming, as the European Milk Board (EMB) has also done, the finalisation of the detailed rules on the €500 million package designed to “improve the difficult situation facing EU agricultural producers” (EUROPE 11610).
Copa-Cogeca Secretary General Pekka Pesonen said that it was important that the schemes put in place are “workable and that money is paid to farmers as quickly as possible”. Dairy farmers are also desperately looking for milk price increases as dairy commodity prices are improving, Pesonen added, highlighting that French producers were demonstrating about this.
Copa-Cogeca makes clear, too, its view that: - the EU pork market remains fragile; - if the beef market situation further deteriorates, swift reaction will be necessary. The July package includes national envelopes for member states worth a total of €350 million to provide targeted aid to EU milk and livestock farmers. Another positive element in the rescue package is that 70% of the direct payments to farmers will be advanced thus helping to alleviate short-term cash flow problems, Pesonen said.
Lastly, Copa-Cogeca have thanked Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan for his proposal to increase EU withdrawal prices for fruit and vegetables but have called for orange and tomato prices to be raised and the list of eligible products to be expanded (EUROPE 11604).
EMB President Romuald Schaber has welcomed the decisions made by the Commission and agriculture ministers. “Although the concrete drafting of the measures could be improved, they do represent a step forwards for dairy farmers”, he commented. The EMB regrets, however, that production has not been reduced systematically across the EU and that adequate funding has not been made available. “One stumbling block is that the production volumes of all EU member states are not capped during the reduction period, and that the compensation payments are very low”, said Schaber.
Reduction in milk production (€150 million). Applications for aid for reducing volume production will, as planned, cover three-month periods only. The first period will begin in October and the deadline for the receipt of applications will be midday on 21 September 2016. If the €150 million budget is not fully used up, a second commitment period will open in November, with further periods lasting until March of next year or until the budget is exhausted. It is hoped that this scheme will support a reduction of around 1.07 million tonnes of milk in Europe.
Producers will have to meet a number of conditions to be eligible for aid: they must: - have delivered milk until July 2016; - pledge a minimum reduction of 1,500 kg; - undertake not to exceed a 50% reduction in their reference production. Calculation of the reduction in milk collected will be in comparison with the same months of the previous year (October, November and December 2015 if the producer agrees to reduce production for October, November and December 2016).
Payment will be made once the reduction has been verified, within 90 days of the end of the commitment period. If the producer fails to cut production sufficiently, payment will be reduced and may be withheld completely. The member states will be able to decide for themselves whether applications and payment should be made through producer organisations (POs) or cooperatives, so long as it is ensured that the aid goes to those who have reduced production.
€350 million envelope. Aid may be paid to milk, beef, veal, pork, goat and lactating ewe producers. The focus of the measures put in place is: - reduction or limitation of production; - small farms; - use of extensive production methods; - use of environmentally or climate friendly methods; - implementation of cooperative projects; - implementation or promotion of quality produce schemes; - use of financial instruments or risk management tools. The funding will have to be used by 30 September 2017. Member states may double their allocated envelopes through national funding. Germany has already announced that it will do so. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)