EU member states agreed on Thursday 19 January not to return any skimmed milk powder held in intervention stocks to the market after this week’s tender, the third (see EUROPE 11698).
The European Commission recommended refusal of all the offers taking the view that they were well below prevailing market prices. Offers were received for a total of 7,490 tonnes, with prices ranging from €155/100kg to €190/100 kg. The minimum price set at the first tender on 15 December was €215.1/100kg. Forty tonnes were sold in the first tender (see EUROPE 11692), in nine countries (Belgium, Latvia, Poland, Ireland, France, United Kingdom, Finland, Lithuania and Germany).
The Commission hopes to sell 22,000 tonnes of skimmed milk powder from intervention stocks (6% of the total of 354,000 tonnes put into public storage in 2015 and 2016) but has rejected almost all the offers submitted. A fourth tender for the remaining quantity (21,962 tonnes) has been opened: 7 February is the closing date for submission of offers. “Better offers are expected at the next tender”, the Commission has said. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)