Speaking in London at the 19th Annual Dairy Industry Newsletter conference, European Commission official Tom Tynan said the Commission is watching EU milk flows closely as the dairy market crisis becomes more sustained.

Tynan said the EU market had an oversupply in the region of seven to eight million tonnes at the moment.

He said: “Milk prices have fallen in the EU from 40c/litre to 28c/l and will fall further in April milk cheques. EU milk supply is up 4.4%. In the first two weeks of February 2016, supply is up 5.6% – and that is leap year adjusted. Germany was up 10% for February milk. That’s 245,000t of product and was the single biggest increase in any EU country. The Dutch recorded the highest March milk supply since 1983.”

The EU official then went on to discuss the demand issues that were depressing the market. He said: “Consumption had flat lined, Chinese demand had halved, global oil prices were on the floor, and declining purchasing power in countries like Algeria, Libya and Venezuela was a big problem.”

Tynan suggested that the European Commission has activated up to €900m in supports since the Russian ban on EU products came into effect, but the Crisis Reserve Fund of €440m was not yet activated.

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