But will this be on time?
There is still hope for the pinched phosphate
Carola Schouten, Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV), was asked to take into account the bottlenecks in the phosphate rights system. Will the bottleneck arrangement still get a tail end because of this? Jaco Geurts (CDA) says that he does not want to raise false hopes, but that there are still possibilities.
Jaco Geurts (CDA) asks the minister to take more account of the bottlenecks. He previously received a petition offered from dairy farmers of the action group 'Innovative from the squeeze'.
Back in the breach
It is not the first time that Geurts has made a case for pinching. "My condition was to support the phosphate rights system." There is a long history attached to his efforts to help the bottlenecks. Every time it turns out to be necessary to bring the group to the attention. "The last chapter here was that the phosphate rights bottlenecks committee, or Kalden, came up with some advice."
That advice was: “The committee advises the State Secretary to forgo a bottleneck category for these situations and to enter into consultation with the business community to develop a more effective approach to support healthy dairy farms in the economic crisis. These are companies with irreversible investments made before 2 July 2015," says Geurts.
Then there was no response. For Geurts, that was the reason to submit a motion about it. This is to prevent healthy companies from failing. He gets support from VVD, ChristenUnie and D66. Geurts is counting on a majority.
Advice shortage committee
Due to the support from the government parties, just before the first concrete implementation of the phosphate rights system is expected, the question can be raised whether Schouten will still give in.
She herself indicates that she has adopted the advice of the Hardship Committee and that she will continue to do so. A nuance is that, when answering the questions, Schouten says: "I value talking with young farmers, since they often have a fresh view of the issues. I accept the offer of 'Innovative out of the pinch' is therefore happy to recommend."
Geurts' telephone has been red hot since the motion came out. This is because dairy farmers fear that the support for shortages will be at the expense of the rest of the group. This through a larger discount. However, Geurts emphasizes that "a solution should not be at the expense of the rest. Even then, there are still opportunities to help the rest."
How realistic is it that there will be a solution. "I don't want to create false hopes", says Geurts, "But I do everything I can to find a solution for as many dairy farmers as possible, which is not at the expense of others."
There will be a vote on this motion on Tuesday 12 December. At the same time, Schouten announced on Thursday 7 December that he would work as carefully as possible, which means that it will take a little longer.
Support from politics
The various political parties do not leave it at that. The SGP, for example, presented a motion on Thursday to remove the creaming from leasing rights. It does not stop there, because Roelof Bisschop (SGP) also asks the minister to include in the negotiations that derogation companies may still apply phosphate fertilizer to silage maize.
The SGP also believes that the rights should be tax depreciable. Dion Graus (PVV) asks the minister to cancel the phosphate rights altogether.
Whether the rights will be tax deductible is yet to be seen. Schouten states in the replies by letter that he will come up with an answer before the Christmas recess. In the same letter, she states that dairy farmers who will become one of the bottlenecks due to the phosphate rights system must report to the Netherlands Enterprise Agency from 1 January 2018 to 1 April 2018. "The aim is then to process the complete applications within 8 weeks."
Dairy goats attract attention
Another milk-producing group, which has meanwhile begun to attract political attention, are dairy goats† Under the influence of a relatively good milk price, the sector is growing steadily, and it is now starting to reach a size that politicians deem necessary to take measures. This is to prevent a repetition of the situation in dairy farming.
Herman van den Pol
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