Brussels, 29/09/2006 (Agence Europe) - Despite the opposition of certain Member States, at the last Council (EUROPE 9268), the Cereals Management Committee supported a proposal on 28th September, aiming to step up the conditions for intervention bodies to take on maize. The plan is to reduce the maximum humidity level and the maximum percentage of broken grains and heat-damaged kernels and to bring in a new specific weight criterion for maize.
The European Commission has already explained that public intervention stocks of maize have stood at levels in excess of 5 million tonnes for the last two growing seasons, without any real possibilities for disposing of them, and that the quality of the kernels deteriorates after 18 months. This maize is produced in the so-called "enclaved" Member States of Central Europe (Hungary, Austria and Slovakia). The objective of this new regulation, therefore, is to exclude the intervention of a proportion of maize and to make intervention products less fragile.
Changes to the criteria for the eligibility of intervention maize are as follows: - maximum humidity levels for maize will drop from 14.5% today to 13.5%; - the maximum percentage of broken and heat-damaged kernels (both elements not found in top-quality cereals) fall respectively from 10% to 5% and 3% to 0.5%. Furthermore, a new criterion is brought in for maize: the minimum specific weight, which is set at 71 kg per hectolitre. These changes will apply to intervention cereals as of 1 November this year.