Brussels, 26/04/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 26 April, the European Commission provided further evidence of the end of the butter mountain and piles of dried milk stored in the EU (see EUROPE 9399). At the Milk Management Committee meeting on the same day, all tenders for the disposal aid for butter (intended for the bakery and ice cream industry) were rejected, thereby in practice eliminating the aid, comments the Commission. Consequently, although disposal aids are still legally possible all such aids for butter and skimmed milk powder are no longer active management measures in the current circumstances and for the foreseeable future. Secondly, all tenders for export refunds for butter were also rejected in response to the continuing improvement of butter market, both externally and internally, where the current average price stands 13% above the intervention buying-in price (and is still increasing), explains the Commission.
The Commission says that 'coupled with positive international market developments, the continuing successful implementation of the 2003 reform in the dairy sector has so far led to substantial reductions of export refunds, reductions or elimination of disposal aids and emptying of intervention stocks'. EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel has called for an increase in dairy quotas for 2009-2014 before scrapping them in 2015. The option will be examined as part of the mid-term review of the Common Agricultural Policy in 2008. The Commission will be reviewing the various options in a report on prospects for the dairy market, to be published at the end of 2007. (lc)