Pressure for action on dairy markets is ramping up in advance of next Monday’s meeting of the EU Council of Agricultural Ministers in Brussels.

French proposals for supply-side control could hammer Irish producers, who had the highest rate of expansion in the EU in 2015.

Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney warned that ministers should not carry out “a midterm review” of the dairy regime next week, saying stability is required.

The proposals he has circulated to fellow ministers were criticised at Wednesday afternoon’s Dairy Forum as inadequate for the scale of the crisis in milk price and dairy incomes. ICMSA described them as “tinkering around the edges” of the issue.

In particular, the need for a higher floor on intervention prices was stressed in advance of the meeting by the IFA’s Jer Bergin and ICMSA’s John Comer. Comer said: “An intervention price rise to 28c/l is the only option that would give stability fast enough to stop the growing panic in the sector.”

Bergin said: “Intervention buy-in must continue even when maximum levels have been reached. APS [Aid to Private Storage] must also be extended, and the enhanced SMP scheme made more flexible by removing penalties for early withdrawal.”

Coveney said after the Forum: “The proposals which we have made are a combination of short-term market support measures as well as medium- to long-term measures to help tackle volatility.”

Glanbia €100m fund

There was a piece of good news for some dairy farmers on Wednesday, as Glanbia launched a groundbreaking €100m loan fund.

Designed to counter volatility, it will see repayments taken from milk cheques and matched to milk price and production patterns. The scheme indirectly accesses European Investment Bank money.