At a time when the European Commission is trying to persuade member states to ease back on public intervention on powdered milk and not build up even more stocks next year, the European Milk Board (EMB) is calling for stronger crisis management tools.
“Stripped to the bone – higher butter prices do not end misery in the dairy sector”, complains the EMB, which held a “symbolic” demonstration outside the headquarters of the European Commission on 26 October: a statue of a skeletal dairy cow stood in the midst of bags full of powdered milk. “The common agricultural policy (CAP) lacks a mechanism to prevent crises” to put a limit on or reduce production in the event of serious imbalance of the market, the EMB yet again laments. It says that the prices paid for milk are significantly lower than production costs because, inter alia, of the pressure being exerted by the stocks of skimmed milk powder built up during the 2016 crisis.
Lack of enthusiasm among member states. The European Commission is trying to persuade the member states to lower the public intervention ceiling for skimmed milk powder to zero in 2018 so as not to accumulate further stocks (see EUROPE 11880). “If nothing is done, from March next year (when public intervention opens), we will be forced to buy milk powder at a set price up to a 109,000 tonne ceiling”, said European Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan on 19 October, yet again expressing his concern at the congress of Polish milk cooperatives. Member state agricultural experts, meeting in the Special Committee on Agriculture on 23 October, gave no unequivocal support to that suggestion, however: some back the proposal though stressing that it must be temporary, while others complain of a further weakening of the safety net. All, nonetheless, called on the Commission to find a way to use up the stocks built up since 2016 (close to 400,000 tonnes) by, for example, giving them to the most needy and using them for animal feed. (Original version in French)