Coveney Welcomes Dairy Supports

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney has welcomed today’s announcement by European Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos that he intends to introduce targeted market support measures for the dairy sector, to alleviate the impact of the closure of the Russian market.

The Commissioner has indicated that he intends to introduce aids for the private storage (APS) of butter and skimmed milk powder (SMP) that will cover the costs of storing these products for a period of between 90 and 230 days.  The Commission will also propose extending this measure to cheese, using a new and more flexible “Exceptional Measures” negotiated by the Irish Presidency under the reformed Common Agricultural Policy. Under more traditional APS provisions, APS for cheese is confined to PDO and PDI cheeses only. The measure can now be used on a broader range of products under new exceptional provisions in the reformed CAP.

Referring to the announcement today, the Minister said that his Department had been working through the Commission’s Management Committee to ensure that the tools available under the CAP were utilised to stabilise markets affected by the Russian ban: “Over the last few weeks, my Department has been working with the Commission and other Member States to monitor market developments, and calling for the utilisation of the appropriate market support instruments to alleviate the impact of the Russian ban. EU Agriculture Ministers will meet late next week at an Extraordinary Council to consider the issues”.

“I am pleased that the Commissioner has responded to requests from member states in a positive way. The exceptional measures agreed during Ireland’s presidency of the European Union provide for a degree of flexibility in responding to events of this nature, which is not available under more traditional measures”

“We have yet to see the detail of the Commission proposals of course, and these will be presented to the management committee and evaluated by member states next week. However APS temporarily removes product from the market at times of downward pressure on prices, and is a tool which can be used in a pro-active way to alleviate market pressures. I very much welcome the Commissioner’s firm commitment to put specific proposals to Member States. I also welcome the Commissioner’s assurance that he will continue to use the new CAP to act pre-emptively where necessary to stabilise the market.”

Concluding, the Minister said that his Department would continue to monitor market developments across all sectors, and said that he would continue to work with the Commissioner and other Member States to ensure that market supports were deployed speedily and effectively, as appropriate, to alleviate market pressures arising from the Russian ban.