News Corona crisis
'Compulsory reduction of milk production with compensation'
All dairy farmers in the European Union, including the Dutch, are obliged to reduce milk production in order to prevent a dairy crisis. They must be compensated for this. The Dutch Dairymen Board and the Dutch Dairy Farmers' Union argue for this in a letter to agriculture minister Carola Schouten.
In doing so, the organizations are following in the footsteps of the European Milk Board. The organizations are concerned about the consequences of the corona crisis for Dutch dairy farmers. The organizations argue for a reduction in production in order to avoid surpluses as much as possible. The European Union now sees more benefit in storage. DDB and NMV emphasize that the storage of dairy products in previous years has never led to the desired result. According to the organizations at European level, Minister Schouten must commit to reducing production with compensation as soon as possible.
Reduce dairy production
Production less is not only more efficient than storage, according to the organizations, it is also more effective and cheaper. The EMB has drawn up a crisis plan to reduce milk production at European level, until the milk price is again at a cost-effective level. Part of this is voluntary reduction of production for a fee across the EU. According to the organizations, this is the only market instrument with which the financial support measures actually end up on the dairy farmer's property.
The DDB, NMV and EMB find it incomprehensible that the EC is once again using the outdated crisis instrument. The storage scheme has repeatedly proven to be insufficient and the crisis is even prolonging. The organizations use the dairy crisis from 2015/2016 as an example for this. The surpluses then ensured that the milk price came under pressure for a long time. The organizations refer to the voluntary production limitation scheme at the end of 2016, which was very successful in the eyes of DDB and NMV with the help of Brussels and the dairy chains.
Private storage arrangement
At the end of April, the European Commission decided to allocate more aid to the agricultural sector, through a subsidy scheme for private storage. With the private storage arrangement, a maximum of 90.000 tons of skimmed milk powder, 140.000 tons of butter and 10.000 tons of cheese worth €30 million can be stored. The representatives want the EC to limit the storage to a maximum of 45.000 tons of skimmed milk powder and 60.000 tons of butter.
Jorine Cosse
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