8,3 percent is the discount on phosphate rights

Dairy farmers who are not land-bound will receive 8,3% less phosphate rights on the amount of phosphate rights allocated in 2018. The bottleneck scheme will be expanded to include starters.

State Secretary Van Dam of Economic Affairs announced the discount percentage in a letter to the House of Representatives on Wednesday. Compared to the number of cows kept on 2 July 2015, non-land-bound dairy farmers will be reduced by 8,3% on the amount of allocated phosphate rights. "The discount percentage is necessary to get below the European ceiling", writes Van Dam† This percentage has been determined on the advice of the CDM and the Committee for Hardships.

Pressure relief scheme expanded
The bottleneck scheme will be extended to include two categories of companies. The advice of the phosphate rights bottlenecks committee is hereby adopted. This concerns start-ups and companies that are in an extraordinary situation because of projects for the public interest, as a result of which they had less land or fewer animals on 2 July 2015. Projects for general interest mean the realization of a nature reserve, construction or maintenance. public infrastructure such as a road or the establishment of a general utility such as the laying of an electricity cable. Other exemptions are not taken into law. 

In its advice, the Committee on Hardships has taken into account whether the consequences for other livestock farmers are justified and whether the groups of companies can be sufficiently demarcated.

Subject to derogation
The phosphate rights system will come into effect in 2018, subject to discussions with the European Commission about a new derogation. The phosphate rights follow the phosphate reduction plan that will bring phosphate emissions in the Netherlands back below the European ceiling in 2017.

Not for land-based companies
Farms with sufficient land in proportion to the number of cows are not cut generically. This is partly due to farms with a relatively small surplus of cows in relation to their own land.

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